Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world

In the history of mathematics, Islamic mathematics or Arabic mathematics refers to the mathematics developed in the Islamic world between 622 and 1600. While most scientists in this period were Muslims and Arabic was the dominant language, contributions were made by people of different ethnic groups (Arabs, Persians, Turks, Moors) and religions (Muslims, Christians, Sabians, Jews, Zoroastrians). The center of Islamic mathematics was located in present-day Iraq and Iran, but at its greatest extent stretched from Turkey, North Africa and Spain in the west, to India in the east.

Islamic science and mathematics flourished under the Islamic caliphate (also known as the Arab Empire or Islamic Empire) established across the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Sicily, the Iberian Peninsula, and in parts of France and Pakistan (known as India at the time) in the 8th century. Although most Islamic texts on mathematics were written in Arabic, they were not all written by Arabs, since—much like Latin in Medieval Europe—Arabic was used as the written language of scholars throughout the Islamic world at the time. In particular, a large number of Islamic scientists in many disciplines, including mathematics, were Persians.

J. J. O'Conner and E. F. Robertson wrote in the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive:

"Recent research paints a new picture of the debt that we owe to Islamic mathematics. Certainly many of the ideas which were previously thought to have been brilliant new conceptions due to European mathematicians of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries are now known to have been developed by Arabic/Islamic mathematicians around four centuries earlier. In many respects, the mathematics studied today is far closer in style to that of Islamic mathematics than to that of Greek mathematics."

R. Rashed wrote in The development of Arabic mathematics: between arithmetic and algebra:

"Al-Khwarizmi's successors undertook a systematic application of arithmetic to algebra, algebra to arithmetic, both to trigonometry, algebra to the Euclidean theory of numbers, algebra to geometry, and geometry to algebra. This was how the creation of polynomial algebra, combinatorial analysis, numerical analysis, the numerical solution of equations, the new elementary theory of numbers, and the geometric construction of equations arose."

Origins and influences

The first century of the Islamic Arab Empire saw almost no scientific or mathematical achievements since the Arabs, with their newly conquered empire, had not yet gained any intellectual drive and research in other parts of the world had faded. In the second half of the eighth century Islam had a cultural awakening, and research in mathematics and the sciences increased. The Muslim Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (809-833) is said to have had a dream where Aristotle appeared to him, and as a consequence al-Mamun ordered that Arabic translation be made of as many Greek works as possible, including Ptolemy's Almagest and Euclid's Elements. Greek works would be given to the Muslims by the Byzantine Empire in exchange for treaties, as the two empires held an uneasy peace. Many of these Greek works were translated by Thabit ibn Qurra (826-901), who translated books written by Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Ptolemy, and Eutocius. Historians are in debt to many Islamic translators, for it is through their work that many ancient Greek texts have survived only through Arabic translations.

Greek, Indian, and Mesopotamian mathematics all played an important role in the development of early Islamic mathematics. The works of mathematicians such as Euclid, Apollonius, Archimedes, Diophantus, Aryabhata and Brahmagupta were all acquired by the Islamic world and incorporated into their mathematics. Perhaps the most influential mathematical contribution from India was the decimal place-value Indo-Arabic numeral system, also known as the Hindu numerals. The Persian historian al-Biruni (c. 1050) in his book Tariq al-Hind states that the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun had an embassy in India from which was brought a book to Baghdad that was translated into Arabic as Sindhind. It is generally assumed that Sindhind is none other than Brahmagupta's Brahmasphuta-siddhanta. The earliest translations from Sanskrit inspired several astronomical and astrological Arabic works, now mostly lost, some of which were even composed in verse.

But Indian influences were soon overwhelmed by Greek mathematical and astronomical texts. It is not clear why this occurred but it may have been due to the greater availability of Greek texts in the region, the larger number of practitioners of Greek mathematics in the region, or because Islamic mathematicians favored the deductive exposition of the Greeks over the elliptic Sanskrit verse of the Indians. Regardless of the reason, Indian mathematics soon became mostly eclipsed by or merged with the "Graeco-Islamic" science founded on Hellenistic treatises.

Biographies

Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar (786 – 833)

Al-Ḥajjāj translated Euclid's Elements into Arabic.

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (c. 780 Khwarezm/Baghdad – c. 850 Baghdad)

Al-Khwārizmī was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer. He worked most of his life as a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. His Algebra was the first book on the systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. Latin translations of his Arithmetic, on the Indian numerals, introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world in the 12th century. He revised and updated Ptolemy's Geography as well as writing several works on astronomy and astrology.

Al-ʿAbbās ibn Saʿid al-Jawharī (c. 800 Baghdad? – c. 860 Baghdad?)

Al-Jawharī was a mathematician who worked at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. His most important work was his Commentary on Euclid's Elements which contained nearly 50 additional propositions and an attempted proof of the parallel postulate.

ʿAbd al-Hamīd ibn Turk (fl. 830 Baghdad)

Ibn Turk wrote a work on algebra of which only a chapter on the solution of quadratic equations has survied.

Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī (c. 801 Kufah – 873 Baghdad)

Al-Kindī (or Alkindus) was a philosopher and scientist who worked as the House of Wisdom in Baghdad where he wrote commentaries on many Greek works. His contributions to mathematics include many works on arithmetic and geometry.

Hunayn ibn Ishaq (808 Al-Hirah – 873 Baghdad)

Hunayn (or Johannitus) was a translator who worked at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. Translated many Greek works including those by Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Hippocrates, and the Neoplatonists.

Banū Mūsā (c. 800 Baghdad – 873+ Baghdad)

The Banū Mūsā where three brothers who worked at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. Their most famous mathematical treatise is The Book of the Measurement of Plane and Spherical Figures, which considered similar problems as Archimedes did in his On the measurement of the circle and On the sphere and the cylinder. They contributed individually as well. The eldest, Jaʿfar Muḥammad (c. 800) specialised in geometry and astronomy. He wrote a critical revision on Apollonius' Conics called Premises of the book of conics. Aḥmad (c. 805) specialised in mechanics and wrote a work on pneumatic devices called On mechanics. The youngest, al-Ḥasan (c. 810) specialised in geometry and wrote a work on the ellipse called The elongated circular figure.

Al-Mahani

Ahmed ibn Yusuf

Thabit ibn Qurra (Syria-Iraq, 835-901)

Al-Hashimi (Iraq? ca. 850-900)

Muḥammad ibn Jābir al-Ḥarrānī al-Battānī (c. 853 Harran – 929 Qasr al-Jiss near Samarra)

Abu Kamil (Egypt? ca. 900)

Sinan ibn Tabit (ca. 880 - 943)

Al-Nayrizi

Ibrahim ibn Sinan (Iraq, 909-946)

Al-Khazin (Iraq-Iran, ca. 920-980)

Al-Karabisi (Iraq? 10th century?)

Ikhwan al-Safa' (Iraq, first half of 10th century)

The Ikhwan al-Safa' ("brethren of purity") were a (mystical?) group in the city of Basra in Irak. The group authored a series of more than 50 letters on science, philosophy and theology. The first letter is on arithmetic and number theory, the second letter on geometry.

Al-Uqlidisi (Iraq-Iran, 10th century)

Al-Saghani (Iraq-Iran, ca. 940-1000)

Abū Sahl al-Qūhī (Iraq-Iran, ca. 940-1000)

Al-Khujandi

Abū al-Wafāʾ al-Būzjānī (Iraq-Iran, ca. 940-998)

Ibn Sahl (Iraq-Iran, ca. 940-1000)

Al-Sijzi (Iran, ca. 940-1000)

Ibn Yunus (Egypt, ca. 950-1010)

Abu Nasr ibn `Iraq (Iraq-Iran, ca. 950-1030)

Kushyar ibn Labban (Iran, ca. 960-1010)

Al-Karaji (Iran, ca. 970-1030)

Ibn al-Haytham (Iraq-Egypt, ca. 965-1040)

Abū al-Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (September 15 973 in Kath, Khwarezm – December 13 1048 in Gazna)

Ibn Sina

al-Baghdadi

Al-Nasawi

Al-Jayyani (Spain, ca. 1030-1090)

Ibn al-Zarqalluh (Azarquiel, al-Zarqali) (Spain, ca. 1030-1090)

Al-Mu'taman ibn Hud (Spain, ca. 1080)

al-Khayyam (Iran, ca. 1050-1130)

Ibn Yaḥyā al-Maghribī al-Samawʾal (c. 1130 Baghdad – c. 1180 Maragha)

Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (Iran, ca. 1150-1215)

Ibn Mun`im (Maghreb, ca. 1210)

al-Marrakushi (Morocco, 13th century)

Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (18 February 1201 in Tus, Khorasan – 26 June 1274 in Kadhimain near Baghdad)

Muḥyi al-Dīn al-Maghribī (c. 1220 Spain – c. 1283 Maragha)

Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (c. 1250 Samarqand – c. 1310)

Ibn Baso (Spain, ca. 1250-1320)

Ibn al-Banna' (Maghreb, ca. 1300)

Kamal al-Din Al-Farisi (Iran, ca. 1300)

Al-Khalili (Syria, ca. 1350-1400)

Ibn al-Shatir (1306-1375)

Qāḍī Zāda al-Rūmī (1364 Bursa – 1436 Samarkand)

Jamshīd al-Kāshī (Iran, Uzbekistan, ca. 1420)

Ulugh Beg (Iran, Uzbekistan, 1394-1449)

Al-Umawi

Al-Qalasadi (Maghreb, 15th century)

Lotfi Asker Zadeh (Iran, 20th century)

Fields

Algebra

Further information: History of algebra

A page from The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.

There are three theories about the origins of Arabic Algebra. The first emphasizes Hindu influence, the second emphasizes Mesopotamian or Persian-Syriac influence and the third emphasizes Greek influence. Many scholars believe that it is the result of a combination of all three sources.

Throughout their time in power, before the fall of Islamic civilization, the Arabs used a fully rhetorical algebra, where sometimes even the numbers were spelled out in words. The Arabs would eventually replace spelled out numbers (eg. twenty-two) with Arabic numerals (eg. 22), but the Arabs never adopted or developed a syncopated or symbolic algebra.

The Muslim

Persian mathematician

Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-khwārizmī was a faculty member of the "House of Wisdom" (Bait al-hikma) in Baghdad, which was established by Al-Mamun. Al-Khwarizmi, who died around 850 A.D., wrote more than half a dozen mathematical and astronomical works; some of which were based on the Indian Sindhind. One of al-Khwarizmi's most famous books is entitled Al-jabr wa'l muqabalah or The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, and it gives an exhaustive account of solving polynomials up to the second degree.

Al-Jabr is divided into six chapters, each of which deals with a different type of formula. The first chapter of Al-Jabr deals with equations whose squares equal its roots (ax² = bx), the second chapter deals with squares equal to number (ax² = c), the third chapter deals with roots equal to a number (bx = c), the fourth chapter deals with squares and roots equal a number (ax² + bx = c), the fifth chapter deals with squares and number equal roots (ax² + c = bx), and the sixth and final chapter deals with roots and number equal to squares (bx + c = ax²).

'Abd al-Hamid ibn-Turk authored a manuscript entitled Logical Necessities in Mixed Equations, which is very similar to al-Khwarzimi's Al-Jabr and was published at around the same time as, or even possibly earlier than, Al-Jabr. The manuscript gives the exact same geometric demonstration as is found in Al-Jabr, and in one case the same example as found in Al-Jabr, and even goes beyond Al-Jabr by giving a geometric proof that if the determinant is negative then the quadratic equation has no solution. The similarity between these two works has led some historians to conclude that Arabic algebra may have been well developed by the time of al-Khwarizmi and 'Abd al-Hamid.

Al-Karkhi was the successor of Abu'l-Wefa and he was the first to discover the solution to equations of the form ax²ⁿ + bxⁿ = c. Al-Karkhi only considered positive roots.

Omar Khayyám (c. 1050-1123) wrote a book on Algebra that went beyond Al-Jabr to include equations of the third degree. Omar Khayyám provided both arithmetic and geometric solutions for quadratic equations, but he only gave geometric solutions for general cubic equations since he mistakenly believed that arithmetic solutions were impossible. His method of solving cubic equations by using intersecting conics had been used by Menaechmus, Archimedes, and Alhazen, but Omar Khayyám generalized the method to cover all cubic equations with positive roots. He only considered positive roots and he did not go past the third degree. He also saw a strong relationship between Geometry and Algebra.

In the 12th century, Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi found algebraic and numerical solutions to cubic equations and was the first to discover the derivative of cubic polynomials.

J. J. O'Conner and E. F. Robertson wrote in the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive:

"Perhaps one of the most significant advances made by Arabic mathematics began at this time with the work of al-Khwarizmi, namely the beginnings of algebra. It is important to understand just how significant this new idea was. It was a revolutionary move away from the Greek concept of mathematics which was essentially geometry. Algebra was a unifying theory which allowed rational numbers, irrational numbers, geometrical magnitudes, etc., to all be treated as "algebraic objects". It gave mathematics a whole new development path so much broader in concept to that which had existed before, and provided a vehicle for future development of the subject. Another important aspect of the introduction of algebraic ideas was that it allowed mathematics to be applied to itself in a way which had not happened before."

Abū al-Hasan ibn Alī al-Qalasādī (1412-1482) was the last major medieval Arab algebraist, who made the first attempt at creating an algebraic notation since Ibn al-Banna two centuries earlier, who was himself the first to make such an attempt since Diophantus and Brahmagupta in ancient times. The notations of his predecessors, however, lacked symbols for operations and relations. Al-Qalasadi's algebraic notation was the first to have symbols for these functions and was thus "the first steps toward the introduction of algebraic symbolism." He represented mathematical symbols using characters from the Arabic alphabet.

Arithmetic

Main article: Arabic numerals

The Indian numeral system came to be known to both the Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, whose book On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals written circa 825, and the Arab mathematician Al-Kindi, who wrote four volumes, On the Use of the Indian Numerals (Ketab fi Isti'mal al-'Adad al-Hindi) circa 830, are principally responsible for the diffusion of the Indian system of numeration in the Middle-East and the West [1]. In the 10th century, Middle-Eastern mathematicians extended the decimal numeral system to include fractions using decimal point notation, as recorded in a treatise by Syrian mathematician Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi in 952-953.

In the Arab world—until modern times—the Arabic numeral system was used only by mathematicians. Muslim scientists used the Babylonian numeral system, and merchants used the Abjad numerals. A distinctive "West Arabic" variant of the symbols begins to emerge in ca. the 10th century in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus, called the ghubar ("sand-table" or "dust-table") numerals.

The first mentions of the numerals in the West are found in the Codex Vigilanus of 976 [2]. From the 980s, Gerbert of Aurillac (later, Pope Silvester II) began to spread knowledge of the numerals in Europe. Gerbert studied in Barcelona in his youth, and he is known to have requested mathematical treatises concerning the astrolabe from Lupitus of Barcelona after he had returned to France.

Al-Khwārizmī, the Persian scientist, wrote in 825 a treatise On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, which was translated into Latin in the 12th century, as Algoritmi de numero Indorum, where "Algoritmi", the translator's rendition of the author's name gave rise to the word algorithm (Latin algorithmus) with a meaning "calculation method". blah blah blah phbbbbbbbbt whatever

Calculus

Around 1000 AD, Al-Karaji, using mathematical induction, found a proof for the sum of integral cubes. The historian of mathematics, F. Woepcke, praised Al-Karaji for being "the first who introduced the theory of algebraic calculus." Shortly afterwards, Ibn al-Haytham (known as Alhazen in the West), an Iraqi mathematician working in Egypt, was the first mathematician to derive the formula for the sum of the fourth powers. In turn, he developed a method for determining the general formula for the sum of any integral powers, which was fundamental to the development of integral calculus.

The eleventh century Persian mathematician Omar Khayyám saw a strong relationship between geometry and algebra, and was moving in the right direction when he helped to close the gap between numerical and geometric algebra with his geometric solution of the general cubic equations, but the decisive step in analytic geometry came later with Descartes. In the 12th century, the Persian mathematician Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi was the first to discover the derivative of cubic polynomials, an important result in differential calculus.

Cryptography

In the 9th century, al-Kindi was a pioneer in cryptanalysis and cryptology. He gave the first known recorded explanation of cryptanalysis in A Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages. In particular, he is credited with developing the frequency analysis method whereby variations in the frequency of the occurrence of letters could be analyzed and exploited to break ciphers (i.e. crypanalysis by frequency analysis). This was detailed in a text recently rediscovered in the Ottoman archives in Istanbul, A Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages, which also covers methods of cryptanalysis, encipherments, cryptanalysis of certain encipherments, and statistical analysis of letters and letter combinations in Arabic.

Ahmad al-Qalqashandi (1355-1418) wrote the Subh al-a 'sha, a 14-volume encyclopedia which included a section on cryptology. This information was attributed to Taj ad-Din Ali ibn ad-Duraihim ben Muhammad ath-Tha 'alibi al-Mausili who lived from 1312 to 1361, but whose writings on cryptology have been lost. The list of ciphers in this work included both substitution and transposition, and for the first time, a cipher with multiple substitutions for each plaintext letter. Also traced to Ibn al-Duraihim is an exposition on and worked example of cryptanalysis, including the use of tables of letter frequencies and sets of letters which can not occur together in one word.

Geometry

Further information: History of geometry

An engraving by Albrecht Dürer featuring Mashallah, from the title page of the De scientia motus orbis (Latin version with engraving, 1504). As in many medieval illustrations, the compass here is an icon of religion as well as science, in reference to God as the architect of creation

The successors of Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (born 780) undertook a systematic application of arithmetic to algebra, algebra to arithmetic, both to trigonometry, algebra to the Euclidean theory of numbers, algebra to geometry, and geometry to algebra. This was how the creation of polynomial algebra, combinatorial analysis, numerical analysis, the numerical solution of equations, the new elementary theory of numbers, and the geometric construction of equations arose.

Al-Mahani (born 820) conceived the idea of reducing geometrical problems such as duplicating the cube to problems in algebra. Al-Karaji (born 953) completely freed algebra from geometrical operations and replaced them with the arithmetical type of operations which are at the core of algebra today.

Although Thabit ibn Qurra (known as Thebit in Latin) (born 836) contributed to a number of areas in mathematics, where he played an important role in preparing the way for such important mathematical discoveries as the extension of the concept of number to (positive) real numbers, integral calculus, theorems in spherical trigonometry, analytic geometry, and non-Euclidean geometry. An important geometrical aspect of Thabit's work was his book on the composition of ratios. In this book, Thabit deals with arithmetical operations applied to ratios of geometrical quantities. The Greeks had dealt with geometric quantities but had not thought of them in the same way as numbers to which the usual rules of arithmetic could be applied. By introducing arithmetical operations on quantities previously regarded as geometric and non-numerical, Thabit started a trend which led eventually to the generalization of the number concept. Another important contribution Thabit made to geometry was his generalization of the Pythagorean theorem, which he extended from special right triangles to all triangles in general, along with a general proof.

Ibrahim ibn Sinan (born 908), who introduced a method of integration more general than that of Archimedes, and al-Quhi (born 940) were leading figures in a revival and continuation of Greek higher geometry in the Islamic world. These mathematicians, and in particular Ibn al-Haytham, studied optics and investigated the optical properties of mirrors made from conic sections.

Astronomy, time-keeping and geography provided other motivations for geometrical and trigonometrical research. For example Ibrahim ibn Sinan and his grandfather Thabit ibn Qurra both studied curves required in the construction of sundials. Abu'l-Wafa and Abu Nasr Mansur both applied spherical geometry to astronomy.

Omar Khayyám (born 1048) was a Persian mathematician, as well as a poet. Along with his fame as a poet, he was also famous during his lifetime as a mathematician, well known for inventing the general method of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle. In addition he discovered the binomial expansion, and authored criticisms of Euclid's theories of parallels which made their way to England, where they contributed to the eventual development of non-Euclidean geometry. Omar Khayyam also combined the use of trigonometry and approximation theory to provide methods of solving algebraic equations by geometrical means. His work marked the beginnings of algebraic geometry and analytic geometry. Khayyam also made the first attempt at formulating a non-Euclidean postulate as an alternative to the Euclidean parallel postulate, and he was the first to consider the cases of elliptical geometry and hyperbolic geometry, though he excluded the latter.

Persian mathematician Sharafeddin Tusi (born 1135) did not follow the general development that came through al-Karaji's school of algebra but rather followed Khayyam's application of algebra to geometry. He wrote a treatise on cubic equations, which represents an essential contribution to another algebra which aimed to study curves by means of equations, thus inaugurating the study of algebraic geometry.

In 1250, Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī, in his Al-risala al-shafiya'an al-shakk fi'l-khutut al-mutawaziya (Discussion Which Removes Doubt about Parallel Lines), wrote detailed critiques of the Euclidean parallel postulate and on Omar Khayyám's attempted proof a century earlier. Nasir al-Din attempted to derive a proof by contradiction of the parallel postulate. He was one of the first to consider the cases of elliptical geometry and hyperbolic geometry, though he ruled out both of them.

His son, Sadr al-Din (sometimes known as "Pseudo-Tusi"), wrote a book on the subject in 1298, based on al-Tusi's later thoughts, which presented one of the earliest arguments for a non-Euclidean hypothesis equivalent to the parallel postulate. Sadr al-Din's work was published in Rome in 1594 and was studied by European geometers. This work marked the starting point for Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri's work on the subject, and eventually the development of modern non-Euclidean geometry. A proof from Sadr al-Din's work was quoted by John Wallis and Saccheri in the 17th and 18th centuries. They both derived their proofs of the parallel postulate from Sadr al-Din's work, while Saccheri also derived his Saccheri quadrilateral from Sadr al-Din, who himself based it on his father's work.

The theorems of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), Omar Khayyam and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi on quadrilaterals, including the Lambert quadrilateral and Saccheri quadrilateral, were the first theorems on elliptical geometry and hyperbolic geometry, and along with their alternative postulates, such as Playfair's axiom, these works marked the beginning of non-Euclidean geometry and had a considerable influence on its development among later European geometers, including Witelo, Levi ben Gerson, Alfonso, John Wallis, and Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri.

Mathematical induction

The first known proof by mathematical induction was introduced in the al-Fakhri written by Al-Karaji around 1000 AD, who used it to prove arithmetic sequences such as the binomial theorem, Pascal's triangle, and the sum formula for integral cubes. His proof was the first to make use of the two basic components of an inductive proof, "namely the truth of the statement for n = 1 (1 = 1³) and the deriving of the truth for n = k from that of n = k - 1."

Shortly afterwards, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) used the inductive method to prove the sum of fourth powers, and by extension, the sum of any integral powers, which was an important result in integral calculus. He only stated it for particular integers, but his proof for those integers was by induction and generalizable.

Ibn Yahyā al-Maghribī al-Samaw'al came closest to a modern proof by mathematical induction in pre-modern times, which he used to extend the proof of the binomial theorem and Pascal's triangle previously given by al-Karaji. Al-Samaw'al's inductive argument was only a short step from the full inductive proof of the general binomial theorem.

Number theory

In number theory, Ibn al-Haytham solved problems involving congruences using what is now called Wilson's theorem. In his Opuscula, Ibn al-Haytham considers the solution of a system of congruences, and gives two general methods of solution. His first method, the canonical method, involved Wilson's theorem, while his second method involved a version of the Chinese remainder theorem. Another contribution to number theory is his work on perfect numbers. In his Analysis and synthesis, Ibn al-Haytham was the first to discover that every even perfect number is of the form 2ⁿ⁻¹(2ⁿ − 1) where 2ⁿ − 1 is prime, but he was not able to prove this result successfully (Euler later proved it in the 18th century).

Recreational mathematics

In recreational mathematics, magic squares were known to Arab mathematicians, possibly as early as the 7th century, when the Arabs got into contact with Indian or South Asian culture, and learned Indian mathematics and astronomy, including other aspects of combinatorial mathematics. It has also been suggested that the idea came via China. The first magic squares of order 5 and 6 appear in an encyclopedia from Baghdad circa 983 AD, the Rasa'il Ihkwan al-Safa (the Encyclopedia of the Brethern of Purity); simpler magic squares were known to several earlier Arab mathematicians.

The Arab mathematician Ahmad al-Buni, who worked on magic squares around 1200 AD, attributed mystical properties to them, although no details of these supposed properties are known. There are also references to the use of magic squares in astrological calculations, a practice that seems to have originated with the Arabs.

Trigonometry

The early Indian works on trigonometry were translated and expanded in the Muslim world by Arab and Persian mathematicians.

Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī produced tables of sines and tangents, and also developed spherical trigonometry. By the 10th century, in the work of Abū al-Wafā' al-Būzjānī, Muslim mathematicians were using all six trigonometric functions, and had sine tables in 0.25° increments, to 8 decimal places of accuracy, as well as tables of tangent values. Abū al-Wafā' also developed the trigonometric formula sin 2x = 2 sin x cos x.

Omar Khayyam solved cubic equations using approximate numerical solutions found by interpolation in trigonometric tables. Al-Jayyani, an Arabic mathematician in Islamic Spain, wrote the first treatise on spherical trigonometry in 1060.

All of these earlier works on trigonometry treated it mainly as an adjunct to astronomy; perhaps the first treatment as a subject in its own right was by Bhaskara II and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (13th century). Nasir al-Din al-Tusi stated the law of sines and provided a proof for it, and also listed the six distinct cases of a right angled triangle in spherical trigonometry.

Ghiyath al-Kashi (14th century) gives trigonometric tables of values of the sine function to four sexagesimal digits (equivalent to 8 decimal places) for each 1° of argument with differences to be added for each 1/60 of 1°. Ulugh Beg (14th century) also gives accurate tables of sines and tangents correct to 8 decimal places.

The method of triangulation, which was unknown in the Greco-Roman world, was also first developed by Muslim mathematicians, who applied it to practical uses such as surveying.

See also

• List of Muslim mathematicians
• Latin translations of the 12th century
• Islamic science
• Islamic Golden Age
• Inventions in the Muslim world

References and further reading

• Berggren, J. Lennart (1986). Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval Islam. New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-96318-9.
• Berggren, J. Lennart (2007). "Mathematics in Medieval Islam". In Victor J. Katz (ed.). The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691114859.
• Boyer, Carl B. (1991). "The Arabic Hegemony". A History of Mathematics (Second Edition ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0471543977. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Cooke, Roger (1997). "Islamic Mathematics". The History of Mathematics: A Brief Course. Wiley-Interscience. ISBN 0471180823.
• Daffa', Ali Abdullah al- (1977). The Muslim contribution to mathematics. London: Croom Helm. ISBN 0-85664-464-1.
• Daffa, Ali Abdullah al-; Stroyls, J.J. (1984). Studies in the exact sciences in medieval Islam. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0471903205.
• Joseph, George Gheverghese (2000). The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics (2nd Edition ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691006598. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Kennedy, E. S. (1984). Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences. Syracuse Univ Press. ISBN 0815660677.
• Plofker, Kim (2007). "Mathematics in India". In Victor J. Katz (ed.). The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691114859.
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (1999), "Arabic mathematics: forgotten brilliance?", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
• Rashed, Roshdi (2001). The Development of Arabic Mathematics: Between Arithmetic and Algebra. Transl. by A. F. W. Armstrong. Springer. ISBN 0792325656.
• Sánchez Pérez, José A (1921). Biografías de Matemáticos Árabes que florecieron en España. Madrid: Estanislao Maestre.
• Sezgin, Fuat (1997). Geschichte Des Arabischen Schrifttums (in German). Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 9004020071.
• Suter, Heinrich (1900). Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke. Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematischen Wissenschaften Mit Einschluss Ihrer Anwendungen, X Heft. Leipzig.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Youschkevitch, Adolf P. (1960). Die Mathematik der Länder des Ostens im Mittelalter. Berlin. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Sowjetische Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft pp. 62-160.
• Youschkevitch, Adolf P. (1976). Les mathématiques arabes: VIII^e-XV^e siècles. translated by M. Cazenave and K. Jaouiche. Paris: Vrin. ISBN 978-2-7116-0734-1.

External links

• Hogendijk, Jan P. (January 1999). Bibliography of Mathematics in Medieval Islamic Civilization.