”Let no one enter who does not have a knowledge

of mathematics.”
Aristotle
GOLDEN AGE-Part 2
 STARTING VIDEOS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5XKjk0-hCo
ACTIVITIES OF BAYT AL HIKMA
 TRANSLATION
In the House of Wisdom, translators, scientists and others used to
meet every day for translation, reading, writing, and discussion.
One of the major activities of Bayt Al Hikma was the translation of
the collected manuscripts.
Many manuscripts and books in different scientific subjects and
philosophical concepts, and in different languages were translated
into Arabic.
To encourage translators and scholars, Caliph Al-Ma’mun was
paying them the weight of each completed book in gold.
This translation saved and preserved ancient work and scientific
knowledge.
All the manuscript written in Arabic reach Europe: In the 12th
century, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars started in Toledo in
Andalucía (Muslim Spain) the translation of some important
ancient Greek texts and Arabic treaties from Arabic to Latin and
then into European languages which had an important impact and
played a major role in the evolution of later European mathematics.
It also helped scholars to understand many concepts they were
working on. Therefore, they produced an original and some crucial
results that contributed to the development of mathematics in
particular and sciences in general.
Among the famous translators was Youhanna bin Al-Batriq Al-Turjuman,
and Hunayn bin Ishaq.
In Mathematics the translation was done mostly by Al Hajjaj bin Matar,
Thabit Ibn Qurra, Ishaq bin Hunayn and Sinan Ibn Thabit
Below is the list of some Greek books with their translators.
 Author Book Translator Date/ Comments
Euclid The Elements Al-Ḥajjaj bin Yusuf Time of Harun Al-Rasheed and Al Mamun
bin Matar
Isḥāq bin Ḥunayn Late ninth century
Thabit ibn Qurra Improved significantly the previous
translations
The Data Isḥāq bin Ḥunayn
The optics ?
Archimedes Sphere and Cylinder Isḥāq bin Ḥunayn Revised a poor early 9th century translation
Thabit ibn Qurra
Measurement of the Circle Thabit ibn Qurra
Heptagon in the circle Thabit ibn Qurra Unknown in Greek
The lemmas Thabit ibn Qurra
On the triangle Sinan ibn Thabit
Ibn Qurra
Apollonius The Conics Thabit ibn Qurra
Ptolemy Almagest Thabit ibn Qurra
Diophantus Arithmetica Qusta bin Luqa Christian from the Lebanese town of
Baalbek
Mentelaos Spherica Ḥunayn bin Isḥāq The father of Isḥāq bin Ḥunayn
 MUSLIM SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS
 Arab and Muslim scientists had contributed significantly to the
development of mathematics by producing an original science.
 Among other concepts, they have improved the decimal
numeration making arithmetic calculation easy and useful for
commercial activities.
 They improved the accuracy of the tables of trigonometry and
developed more efficient calculation methods than those
contained in the Almagest.
 However, their most important contribution that had a big impact
on the evolution of mathematics is the invention of the concept
of Algebra.
 Arab/Muslim Mathematicians of the Golden Age
and their main work

 In what will follow, I am giving a small biography of some

influent mathematicians of the golden age.
 I am also giving a brief description of their work area.
 The details of the work for some of them will be given later
during the semester.
 BANU MUSA BROTHERS

 Muhammad, Ahmad and Al-Hassan ibn Musa ibn Shakir were

the three Banu Musa brothers
 They were mathematicians and engineers working at Bayt Al
Hikma as scholars and translators at the beginning of the 9th
century.
 Muhammad worked mainly on geometry and astronomy, Ahmad
on mechanics and al Hasan on geometry.
 The most studied treatise written by the Banu Musa is ”Kitab
maarifat masahat al-ashkal” Book on the shapes area.
 ABU YUSUF AL KINDI
(801- 875)
 Abu Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī
was an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician
and musician.
 Al-Kindi was considered as the "father of Arab philosophy".
 He was born in the city of Al Kufa (Iraq) around 801AD.
 After finishing his studies in Al Kufah and Baghdad, he was appointed
by Al-Ma'mun to Bayt Al Hikma together with Al-Khwarizmi and
the Banu Musa brothers.
 Al Kindi was involved in the translation of the Greek manuscripts in
philosophy and mathematics.
 In philosophy he used Aristotle as a base for his philosophical works.
 In Mathematics his work was in arithmetic and geometry including
manuscripts on Indian numbers, lines and multiplication with
numbers.
 MUHAMMAD IBN MUSA AL-KHWARIZMI
(780- 850)

 Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was a Muslim

mathematician, Astronomer and geographer.
 He was born around 780, in Khwarizm, modern Khiva, south of the
Aral Sea and died around 850 in Baghdad.
 Al Khwarizmi was one of the most famous Muslim mathematicians of
the golden age.
 From his name comes the word "algorithm".
 He was appointed by Caliph Al-Ma'mun to participate in the
translation into Arabic of the Greek manuscripts
 Al Khwarizmi contributed to the development of mathematics in
many concepts.
 He initiated the algebra as a new subject in a systematic form and
used it to give analytical solutions of linear and quadratic equations.
Al Khawarizmi is established as the founder of Algebra.
 The book “Al Kitab al Mukhtasar fi Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala”
(Calculation by Completion and Balancing) where he introduced this
important concept, was used for many centuries by many
mathematicians all around the world.
 He developed in detail trigonometric tables containing
the sine functions.
 He perfected the geometric representation of conic sections.

 He also collaborated in the degree measurements of volume and

circumference of the earth.
 THABIT IBN QURRA AL HURRANI
(826- 901)
 Thabit Ibn Qurra Ibn Marwan al-Sabi al-Harrani was
born in 826 AD at Harran (present Turkey)
 Around 846 AD, the mathematician Muhammed Ibn Musa Ibn Shakir
selected him to join the scientific group of Bayt Al Hikma.
 Thabit ibn Qurra was mastering many languages such as Syriac,
Greek and Arabic
 He improved the translation of the Element of Euclid (done before
him by Banu Musa)
 Thabit wrote many original works in many fields.
 His contribution in mathematics was mainly in
Arithmetic, number theory and geometry.
 “On the Composition of Ratio” is one of the few of Thabit's works that
were preserved in their original form.
 ABU KAMIL SHUJA IBN ASLAM
(850- 901)
 Abu Kamil Shujaʿ ibn Aslam ibn Muhammad ibn Shuja
was an Egyptian mathematician known as Al-Hâsib Al-Misrî (The
Egyptian Computer).
 Abu Kamil was born in 850 and died in 901.

 In Mathematics, Abu Kamil worked to improve many problems

treated before him by Al Khwarizmi.
 He worked on quadratic equations, multiplication and division of
algebraic expressions, addition and subtraction of radicals.
 Abu Kamil is considered the first mathematician to use and accept
irrational numbers as solutions of quadratic equations.
 The work of Abu Kamil inspired later mathematicians such as Al
Karaji and Al Samaw’al.
 It was the basis of Fibonacci’s book Liber abaci (1202).
 Abu Kamil through Fibonacci introduced the Arab mathematics to the
European world.
 His survived books: Book on algebra, Book of rare things in the art of
calculation, and Book on surveying and geometry.
 ABU’L HASSAN AHMAD AL-UQLIDISSI
(920- 980)

 Abu Al Hassan Al-Uqlidisi was an Islamic mathematician was born in

Damascus, Syria in 920 and died in the same place by 980.
 In 952, he wrote two manuscripts Kitab al-fusul fi al-hisab al Hindi
and Kitab al-hajari fi al-hisab.
 The Kitab al-fusul fi al-hisab al-Hindi of al-Uqlidisi is the earliest
surviving book that presents the Hindu system.
 Abu'l-Hasan Al-Uqlidisi was the first mathematician to write about
4
decimal fractions and to use decimal notation (e.g. 8.8 instead of 8 )
5
 Al-Uqlidisi's work is historically important as it is the earliest known
text offering a direct treatment of decimal fractions (See A S Saidan, The earliest
extant Arabic arithmetic, Isis57 (1966), 475-490)
 MOHAMMAD ABU’L WAFA
(940-998)

 Muḥammad Abūʾl-Wafāʾ al-Būzjānī was a famous Islamic

Astronomer and Mathematician.
 He was born in Būzjān in the region of Khurāsān, around 940.
 In 960, he moved to Baghdad where he became very famous by
leading the Observatory as Astronomer.
 His contribution in Mathematics was in geometry and trigonometry.
 He was the first scientist to introduce the function tangent.
 He improved Ptolemy’s trigonometric tables that was accurate to 3
decimal places and made it accurate to 8 decimal places.
 He also developed relations for 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠(𝑎𝑎 + 𝑏𝑏) and other trigonometric
formulas.
 Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Karaji
(953-1029)
 One of the most famous mathematician of the 10th Century.
 Al Karaji was born in 953AD in Baghdad.

 He is famous by his writings on algebra and for freeing algebra from

geometry.
 He is known as the first Muslim Mathematician to use arithmetic to
solve problems in Algebra that used to be solved using geometry

 Al Karaji’s important contributions in mathematics survived in his

books “Al-Badi‘ fi‘lhisab” (Wonders of Arithmetic), Al Fakhri fi'l-jabr
wa'l-muqabala (Glorious on algebra), and Al-Kafi fi'l hisab (Sufficient
on calculation)
 Al-Karaji was the first to use the method of proof by mathematical
induction to prove his results.
 Al-Karaji computed 𝑎𝑎 + 𝑏𝑏 3 and 𝑎𝑎 + 𝑏𝑏 4 initiating what we know
today as the Pascal’s triangle.
 Among other things, Al-Karaji used mathematical induction to prove
the binomial theorem.

Al Fakhri fi'l-jabr wa'l-Muqabala

by Al Karaji
 Starting Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZJ93OxRzKI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZDe9DCx7Wk
ABU ALI Al hassan IBN AL HAYTHAM
(965, 1040)

 Abu Ali al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham was Muslim Physicist,

philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer.
 He was born in Basra in 965 and died in1040 in Cairo.
 He was known in the West by “Alhazen” the Latinized form of
his first name, Al-Hasan.
 He made significant contributions to the principles of optics and
the use of scientific experiments.
 He established the theory of vision using a dark chamber that he
called “Albeit Almuzlim,” translated into Latin as “camera
obscura”
 Ibn Al Haytham a major part of his life in Egypt.
 His major contribution in mathematics was in Number Theory,
specially perfect numbers.
 He also has been the first to find a formula for the sum of the
first 100 integers.
 OMAR Al KHAYYAM
(1048-1123)
 Omar Al Khayyam or Omar Khayyam was a Muslim
mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and Poet.
 He worked in different topics of mathematics and wrote many
treatise in mathematics, astronomy and philosophy.
 In his “Maqalah fi al-jabra wa-al muqabalah
he gave a geometric solution to cubic equations.
 He combined the use of trigonometry and approximation theory
to provide methods of solving algebraic equations using
geometry
 Omar Khayyam was also a fine poet known by “The Rubaiyat of
Omar Khayyam“ the quatrains that has been translated into
almost all major languages.
 AL-SAMAW’AL IBN YAHYA AL MAGHRIBI
(1130-1180)

 Al Samaw’al was a mathematician, astronomer and

physician. Born to a Jewish family. He was converted to
Islam in 1163.
 His major work in mathematics was on polynomials.
 He also calculated the equivalent of the expansion of
the binomial 𝑎𝑎 + 𝑏𝑏 𝑛𝑛 , and described the construction
of what we now know as the Pascal Triangle.
 IBN AL BANNA AL MURAKUSHI
(1256, 1321)
 Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi was a Moroccan
philosopher and mathematician.
 He wrote between 51 and 74 treatises in different subjects:
Algebra, astronomy and logic.
 In Number Theory, Ibn Al Banna discovered a new pair of
amicable numbers (17,296 and 18,416) attributed today to the
French mathematician Pierre de Fermat.
 In his Talkhis a’mal al-hisab (Summary of arithmetic
operations) and Raf’ al hijab ‘an I’lm al Hisab
(Raising the Veil on the Operations of the Calculation)
Ibn Al Banna worked on computing square roots and
the theory of continued fractions.