Cammann IslamicIndianMagic 1969

Islamic and Indian Magic Squares.
Part I
Author(s): Schuyler Cammann
Source: History of Religions , Feb., 1969, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Feb., 1969), pp. 181-209
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1061759
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Schuyler Cammann I S L AM I C AND
INDIAN MAGIC
SQUARES
PART I
In the Islamic world and in Hindu India peopl

or amulets figured with magic diagrams compo
in most cases these were obviously talismans
names or familiar charm phrases. However, i
we also find rectangular patterns of number
way; and although it is clear that these, too
sacred, and effective as protective charms, t
reverence have never been fully explained.'
These numerical magic squares, like those in o
composed of numbers arranged in such a way t
and every row, and the two main diagonals woul
sum. This ability to produce a common sum in
ways has led modern mathematicians to cons
1 Among the Western writings on Islamic magic squar
probably the most useful: Wilhelm Ahrens, "Studien iiber
der Araber," Der Islam, VII (1917), 186-250, and "Die magischen Quadrate
al-Binis," ibid., XII (1922), 157-77; B. Bergstrasse, "Zu den magischen Quad-
raten," ibid., XIII (1923), 227-35; and Tewfiq Canaan, "The Decipherment of
Magic Talismans," Berytus, IV (1937), 104 ff. For the related squares among
Indian Muslims, see Jaffur Shureef (Ja'far Sharif), Qanoon-e-Islam, trans. G. A.
Herklots (London, 1832), esp. pp. 347-56. Very little has been written about
magic squares in India, but a number of short descriptions appear in Punjab
Notes and Queries, I and II (1884-85). All of the above are more useful for the
examples illustrated than for the remarks about them. For magic squares in
general, see W. S. Andrews, Mlagic Squares and Cubes (Chicago, 1917; reissued by
Dover in 1960); further citations here will be from the 1960 edition.
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Islamic and Indian Magic Squares
as mathematical curiosities or amusing games, and as such they

have been relegated to the minor category of Mathematical
Recreations. However, this is a rather recent development. Magic
squares once enjoyed a much more important status, and they
constituted a major preoccupation for many brilliant scholars in
the Middle East and India.
In an article for the first volume of this journal, I began an
attempt to answer the question of why the magic squares wer
significant for the men of old, by demonstrating that to the
Ancient Chinese the simple magic square of three was a deepl
meaningful symbol, having many possible interpretations, on
different levels of thought.2 I there stressed the fact that it
symbolic meanings were seldom based upon numerology-that is,
arbitrary assigning of auspicious meanings to certain num-
bers-but were usually based upon some seemingly mysteriou
properties inherent in the grouping of the numbers, which could
lead to explanations in terms of the religious or philosophica
beliefs of Old China. Then, in a succeeding article, for a sinologica
journal, I went on to show that a group of Chinese magic squares
for higher numbers-preserved in a thirteenth-century book b
Yang Hui, who admitted that he was borrowing from still earlier
authors3-also must have had deep religious and philosophical
significance for the men who constructed them and then used them
for divination and other purposes.4 Now, I would like to continue
to answer the question of the former significance of magic squares
by discussing the further development of numerical magic squares
in other parts of Asia, after the initial Chinese experiments
became known to other peoples.
One of the first findings to emerge from this line of research was
the discovery that methods for constructing magic squares
differed rather markedly from one area to another, with cultura
or regional preferences for certain techniques and kinds of squares
For example, certain methods of construction were favored in th
Islamic world, while several different methods were customarily
used by the Hindus, even though all of these methods were know
to both peoples; and the result of these separate approaches wa
two quite disparate sets of magic squares, with different internal
properties. Then, on investigating the inner workings of both sets
of squares, I found that in each case they seemed to reflect-when
2 S. Cammann, "The Magic Square of Three in Old Chinese Philosophy and
Religion," History of Religions, I (1961), 37-80.
3 For Yang Hui's book, see n. 9 below.
4 S. Cammann, "Old Chinese Magic Squares," Sinologica, VII (1962), 14-53.
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History of Religions
they did not openly express-certain basic ideas from the philoso-
phies or religions of the respective peoples who made them.
Altogether, it seemed obvious that the preference for certain types
of magic squares in different cultures must have arisen because
these particular types more effectively symbolized the ideas and
beliefs of the people who made them.
This is not surprising, because-although it is still fashionable in
some academic circles to speak of a common philosophical tradition
in olden times, "The Perennial Philosophy," implying that the
same ideas and symbols pertained everywhere in the Ancient and
Medieval worlds, with only slight regional variations in their
expression-actually, ideas and symbols differed widely, until
modern times. A given symbol could mean quite different things
in separate nations, or even at different times within the same
culture. This is obvious when one traces the progress and decline
of the magic square of three in China. Therefore, it is futile to try
to transfer unchanged the Chinese symbological interpretations
of their own magic squares to the squares of other people in other
civilizations; just as the views of the "outside nations" concerning
their own magic squares cannot validly be read back to interpret
the squares in China. Almost the only thing that carried over from
one nation to another was the notion that a magic square was a
miniature diagram of the Earth or of the Universe; the nature of
the Universe, and what took place within it, was very differently
explained in each major culture.
SOURCES AND METHODS OF RESEARCH
Just as in previously dealing with the Chinese mag

basic method of approach was to determine the sp
magic squares that were most generally used in a g
(here, the Islamic world and Hindu India); then,
mathematically, to try to see why certain kinds wer
why others-though they may have been known-
over, or never developed. Next, it was necessary
for these choices in some aspects of the religion or
that civilization. The last step would logically be to
the makers or users of these squares themselves ev
statements that might confirm my interpretation
for their choices.
In the case of China, the final step was very difficult, because
the Lo-Shu magic square of three, and the others associated with
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it, constituted an important element in the esoteric tradition, not

to be openly discussed as long as that tradition remained alive.
By the time these squares ceased to be a part of Chinese occult
lore, many of the old beliefs regarding them had been forgotten.
However, even though older writers tended to refrain from men-
tioning directly the inner meanings of the Lo-Shu, it was still
possible to find oblique references that were based upon these
meanings, which confirmed my earlier findings from mathematical
analysis of the Lo-Shu square and its derivatives.
In studying the magic squares of the Islamic world, although
we find a much fuller literature, with a number of books in Persian
and Arabic devoted specifically to this subject, the researcher is
faced with many problems. For example, one of the most extensive
Arabic sources is a well-known book by the North African occultist,
Muhyi'l-Din Abi'l'Abbas al-Bfni (d. 1225), called the Shams al-
ma'drif al-kubrd.5 This book appears to be very complete, but on
consulting it, one soon finds insuperable obstacles. In the first
place, its language is deliberately esoteric, and the explanations
of the squares were apparently written to confuse people who
might try to make illicit use of them. Perhaps because of the same
desire to confuse the uninitiated, but also due to centuries of
recopying manuscripts, the squares themselves are badly garbled
or miswritten, so that the larger, and potentially most interesting
ones are now completely indecipherable. In other books on the
subject by Arabic and Persian authors, a garbled square can
usually be corrected by carefully adding all the rows and columns,
then, when a row and a column fail to produce the required sum for
that particular size of square, you replace the faulty number in the
cell where that row and that column cross.6 However, when there are
too many garbles, even this may not be successful, and the esoteric
language still presents major problems. On the other hand, the
5 This thirteenth-century book is still being published in Cairo (I have a copy

published in 1962). It was discussed by Ahrens in his "Magischen Quadrate al-
Bfini's," pp. 157 ff.
6 See Ahrens, "Magischen Quadrate al-Buni's" (n. 1 above), pp. 158-59 for a
discussion of the problem of garbled squares. On a higher technical level, if one
has had enough experience with magic squares to be able to see the system by
which a given square has been constructed, one can work it through again, and
locate the garbles in passing. By the same token, if the medieval writers wanted
to transmit certain magic squares to their disciples without their being misused
by the wrong people, they could deliberately make a few garbles, while still
presenting enough of the square correctly so that the general method of construc-
tion would be sufficiently clear for an initiated reader to reconstruct the whole.
However, most of the garbles in these manuscripts under discussion were un-
doubtedly the result of writers and copyists trying to pass on diagrams that they
did not fully understand themselves.
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old Islamic books and manuscripts sometimes provide clues in

other ways. For example, when one finds that a religious-minded
author consistently refrains from writing the middle number in a
magic square, the empty cell clearly shows that he must have felt
that the middle number was awesomely significant.
When we come to the Indian magic squares, the one authorita-
tive early source, Narayana's Ga.nita-kaumudi of 1356,7 has fewer
garbled squares, but the text is somewhat difficult. While the
author refrains from direct statements about the ideas behind the
squares, at times his choice of words provides a clue, as we shall
see. Then, too, the preference of Narayana and later Hindus for
certain methods of constructing magic squares is so consistent,
and the religious or philosophical significance of those methods is
so transparent, that one feels able to interpret them with some
confidence.
The obvious next step is for students of Islamic lore, and others
in Indic studies, to try to translate some of the key writings on the
subject with the aid of the analyses given below. This will not
only help to confirm or disprove the hypotheses offered here; more
importantly, it will enable modern scholars in the Western World
to learn still more of the fascinating lore of magic squares, already
largely forgotten-even in those Oriental lands where the art of
constructing highly sophisticated magic squares was first developed
during our Middle Ages.
The task of translating the Arabic, Persian, and Indian works
on magic squares will not be easy, for reasons that have been
alluded to in passing but which might now be more explicitly
stated. The whole subject of magic squares was a heavily guarded
one at the time of its highest development in medieval Asia. Most
writers were reserved or noncommittal, keeping esoteric interpre-
tations for oral transmission. Occasional books have "explanatory"
passages, but these may turn out to be as oblique and as fragmen-
tary as were the remarks in the Chinese literature.
The medieval scholars had two strong reasons for secrecy. In
the first place, the numerical squares were apparently considered
as very sacred symbols, properly to be understood only by
initiates, who were taught to respect them as such, without
7 Niarayana's Ganita-kaumudi, ed. Padmekara Dvividi, was republished in The

Princess of Wales Sarasvati Bhavana Sanskrit Series, No. 57. Part II of this,
containing the chapter on magic squares, was published in Allahabad in 1942. I
also have a microfilm of an incomplete MS containing this section: Indian Office
Library, London, No. 596B. (A similar MS is in the Indian Office Library, Cam-
bridge, No. 77.)
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betraying the secret meanings to possible scoffers, or to the overly

orthodox who might find reasons to consider them heretical.
Secondly, after the transfer from religious to magical usage-
actually, these functions were often simultaneous in a given
region-the squares had ascribed to them powers and uses that
would seem to make them exceedingly dangerous in the hands of
ignorant or malicious people, who might stupidly or wilfully try to
employ them for evil ends. Thus, it was deemed necessary to make
any discussion of them sufficiently obscure to keep their inner
meanings incomprehensible to the uninitiated; and of course
modern Western scholars are handicapped by being doubly
"uninitiated," as products of another culture.
THE CHINESE BACKGROUND
The earliest known magic square is the simple s

which can be traced back to the fourth century
although Chinese tradition puts it back some two t
beyond that. The Chinese called it the Lo-Shu, an
it as a symbol of the Universe. They also put spe
its middle number, 5; because of its position as the
between each opposing pair of the other numb
each pair being 10-they considered that it symboli
at the center of the Middle Kingdom (China), or
axis at the center of the world. This was only the b
symbolism that they read into the Lo-Shu (further
found in the previous article8), but it should be en
some of the reverence for it, and to indicate why
regarded it as a source of power and wonderworkin
They constructed this magic square of three by f
"natural square" of three-the numbers from 1 t
three parallel columns-which they began at the
the usual Chinese fashion. Then they tilted this squ
its southwest corner, and reversed its center row and central
column (which had been the diagonals of the natural square), after
which they collapsed the diamond to form another square: the
magic square of three9 (see Fig. 1).
8 Cammann, "The Magic Square of Three ... "(n. 2 above).

9 This Old Chinese method for making the magic square of three was included
by Yang Hui when he presented the earliest extant set of Chinese magic squares
in his book on mathematics, the Hsu-ku chai-chi suan-fa, first published in Hang-
chou in A.D. 1275. Existing copies of this book are extremely rare, and more
modern collections (tsung-shu) which have purported to reproduce it invariably
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This is the only possible magic square of three to be made with

the regular sequence, 1 to 9. Although it may be rotated or
"reflected" (reversed and rotated) to appear in eight different
ways, the arrangement of the numbers remains unchanged. A
3 x 3 magic square made with any other sequence would be called
a magic square of the third order. The number of cells on one side
of the square is called the "base number" (symbolized by n), and
this determines the order.
Yang Hui's book shows how very much the Old Chinese relied
upon the Lo-Shu in constructing magic squares of higher numbers.
For example, to make magic squares of five and seven they took
nine numbers from the middle of the sequence, and arranged these
in a magic square of the third order, to form a core; then around
1 9
741 4 2 4 2 4 9 2
7 5 3 3 5 7
852 8 6 8 6 357
9 6 3 9 1 8 1 6
a. b. c. d.
FIG. 1.-How the Chinese made the Lo-Shu: (a) the natural square of three
(Chinese style); (d) the magic square of three.
this they placed the rest in a bordering rim, thus making a

"bordered magic square."10 As another solution, they took the
first four numbers of the sequence and the last four, and placed
these at the corners and in the cells at the center of each side, with
the middle number of the sequence in the center, so that these
nine numbers, arranged in an open Lo-Shu pattern, formed a
kind of skeleton around which to dispose the rest.ll (Later the
Muslims were to improve upon this, by combining both of these
methods to make a single square12.) The bordered squares were
ingenious and effective, but they were not quite as perfect as the
lack the section on magic squares. However, these squares have been republished
by Li Yen in the various editions of his book called Chung-suan-shih lun-ts'ung.
(My references here are to the pai-hua edition of 1934.) This method for making
the magic square of three is found in the latter, on p. 178. Incidentally, it should
be noted here that the Old Chinese magic squares had each number enclosed in a
small circle, rather than having a square with cells.
10 See Cammann, "Old Chinese Magic Squares" (n. 4 above), Figs. 3, 4, 7, and
9.
11 Ibid., Figs. 6 and 8.
12 Several examples of the Islamic squares made by combining these two
Chinese techniques are shown in a Persian manuscript in the British Museum:
Add. 7713, p. 119b, ff. For more about this MS, see n. 35 below.
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second type, which were also "associated." That is, every pair of
numbers equidistant from the center, on a line running through
the middle number, is "complementary"; the sum of each pair is
always double the middle number.-The same phenomenon is
present in the magic square of three, but it seems more spectacular
in the larger squares.
Probably the most amibitious use of the Lo-Shu pattern in
China appeared in the Old Chinese magic square of nine. First
they made a natural square of nine, writing the numbers from
1 to 81 in nine columns; then they took each horizontal row and
arranged its numbers in the Lo-Shu pattern, to make a magic
square of the third order; and finally they arranged these nine
small squares in the Lo-Shu pattern to make a kind of "Giant
Lo-Shu."13 Later, Muslim scholars did a kind of variation on
this, by making a natural square in the same way, then taking the
columns, instead of the rows, to make the small squares of the
third order, later arranging these in a giant Lo-Shu pattern.
However, this was somewhat less effective, as the mode of con-
struction was more immediately obvious.
Even more ingenious was the Old Chinese application of the
Lo-Shu pattern to make magic squares of six.14 Magic squares of
even numbers cannot be made in the same way as those for the odd
numbers. They fall into two groups, depending on whether the
base number is "singly even"-divisible only by 2-as 6, 10, 14,
etc., or "doubly even"-divisible by 4 (or 2 twice)-as 4, 8, 12,
etc. The "singly even" squares present special problems, and they
have always been considered most difficult to construct. Paradoxi-
cally, the Chinese managed to conquer this major difficulty with
the magic square of six, by once more calling upon the Lo-Shu, in
a typically Chinese mode of construction which we never find
repeated elsewhere; yet they were never very successful in coping
with the other even numbers, even the relatively easy, doubly
even ones. This is because they were so overly dependent upon the
Lo-Shu that in cases where they could not apply it they felt quite
lost. They managed to achieve rather primitive magic squares of
four and eight; but for a more sophisticated square of eight, and
one of ten, they had to borrow from elsewhere,15 as we shall see.
13 Cammann, "Old Chinese Magic Squares" (n. 4 above), Figs. 10 and 11.
14 Ibid., Figs. 14, 15, and 16.
15 In ibid., pp. 44-45 and 46-47, I assumed that Yang Hui's first magic square
of eight and his magic square of ten were both Chinese. I have since discovered
that I was wrong; neither was of Chinese construction and they were undoubtedly
borrowed from another land, probably India, as I shall explain in Part II.
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ISLAMIC MAGIC SQUARES
When the Chinese ceased to value magic squares, about

beginning of the tenth century A.D., the former secrecy con
them seems to have been relaxed and the primary idea, as w
some suggestions for constructing them, passed on to o
peoples. From the seventh to the fourteenth century of our
considerable numbers of Persian and Arab merchants were
in the port towns along the China coast, gradually abso
elements of Chinese culture while still maintaining contact
their homelands, and some of these could have conveyed a k
edge of magic squares to western Asia.
The early progress with magic squares in China had dev
partly from long experience with positional numbers, and p
-after A.D. 100-from having plenty of cheaply produced
on which to experiment. About the time when the Chinese
disclosed the secret of magic squares to others, the Arab
Persians borrowed from the Hindus the idea of positiona
bers,16 and, as they had recently learned how to manufacture
from Chinese prisoners captured at the Battle of the Talas R
in 751,17 they now had the chief requisites for advancing on the
The magic square of three made its first public appearance
Islamic world about the year 900, in an Arabic treatise trad
ally ascribed to Jabir ibn Hayyan (known to Europe
Geber).18 The unknown author presented it as a charm for
childbirth, and claimed that it had come down from Apo
of Tyana, a Classical saga of the first century A.D.19 Actual
square seems to have been unknown in the Near East before
time, and it had probably only recently come in from China;
ascription to Apollonius gave it a spurious air of antiquit
gesting a link with a magic worker in the Classical past,
16 Our "Arabic" numerals are actually Hindu-Arabic, since the idea fo
came originally from India; but, in form, they are for the most part quite dif
from either of the prototypes (see David Eugene Smith, History of .Mat
[Dover ed.; New York, 1958], pp. 65-77).
17 Thomas Francis Carter, The Invention of Printing in China and its
Westward (New York, 1925), pp. 97 ff.
18 This book, the Kitdb al-Mawdzin, has been translated into French
Berthelot, "L'Alchimie arabe," in Histoire des Sciences: la chimie au mo
II [Paris, 1893], esp. p. 150; and the comments by Ahrens, in "Studien. ."
[n. 1 above], pp. 171 and 186-87).
19 The ascription of magic squares to famous figures of the Classical world was
very common. Al Qazvini (d. A.D. 1283) said that Archimedes invented magic
squares, and-as we shall see-al-Buni ascribed the principal Islamic magic
square of four (shown in Fig. 7, in the text above) to Plato. This merely shows
the contemporary reverence for antiquity; for we have absolutely no evidence
to show that the Classical Greeks or Romans had magic squares with numbers.
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greater prestige to the charm. The square itself contained letters

with numerical values, instead of numbers, in the so-called abjad
system.20 As the corners of this abjad square contained Arabic
letters equivalent to b, u, d and h, it was familiarly called the
buduh, and this name was sometimes even applied to the numerical
magic square of three. However, the general word for a magic
square in the Islamic world was wafq (plural: awfdq).
The first set of Islamic magic squares was presented in an
encyclopedia called the Rasd'il, composed by the Ikhwan as-Safa',
a Muslim brotherhood, otherwise known as the Brothers of
Purity.21 It appeared around the year A.D. 989 in Basra, a seaport
for international trade as far as China. This location may be
significant, because the squares were presented as illustrations of
the natural harmony of the Universe, and the accompanying text
describes them as small models of a harmonious Universe, much
as the Chinese had regarded the Lo-Shu and its derivatives. Even
the construction methods of these squares sometimes show obvious
Chinese influence.
We first find the simple magic square of three, in an unfamiliar
position (Fig. 2a), which could have resulted from taking an
Indian-style natural square-formed in rows beginning at the
upper left22-and then treating it in the Chinese method shown in
20 The abjad system was a way of using Arabic letters with numerical values
instead of numbers, as was done before the introduction of numerals from India.
Since these letters were arranged in an archaic sequence, following the order of
the Hebrew alphabet, the first four were alef, bd, jZm and ddl, so the initials of
these names for the Arabic letters were taken to make the-otherwise meaning-
less-name abjad. (Actually abjad is the first of a series of nonsensical words which
comprise all the letter numbers, to aid in remembering them.)
21 For details about this Brotherhood, see George Sarton, Introduction to the
History of Science, I (Baltimore, 1927), pp. 660-61. Their encyclopedia was
reprinted in Cairo in 1928 from a manuscript in that city, and I have used this
edition for its magic squares. I have examined many other manuscripts of this
book in libraries in the United States and in Europe, but this is the only one I
have seen that has the higher squares above six (although the others discuss
them without picturing them). These last three squares are so very primitive
that they match the rest, and there seems no reason to suspect that they are not
all very early, probably the original set from the ninth century.
The same set, from the same source, has already been published by Hermelink,
in "Die altesten magischen Quadrate h6herer Ordnung und ihre Bildungsweise,"
Sudhoffs Archiv, XLII (1958), 199-217. Since the squares in this Cairo edition
are horribly garbled, some years ago I worked for many weeks to resolve the
garbles and reconstruct the original squares. I had finally completed this task,
and was about to publish my findings, when I came upon this article by Dr.
Hermelink. Our reconstructions of the squares were identical; but I cannot agree
with some of his interpretations and conclusions.
22 Even in forming the natural squares, there were different procedures in the
various cultures, due to differences in habits of writing. In China, natural squares
were constructed in vertical columns beginning at the upper right; in the Islamic
world, they were made in horizontal rows beginning at the upper right; in India,
horizontal rows beginning at the upper left.
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Figure 1. If this is the correct analysis, it might indicate that part

of the initial tradition had come to the Middle East from China by
way of India.
Then comes the simple magic square of four (Figure 2b). This
square can be achieved by reversing the diagonals in a natural
square (made in rows); but, judging from the position shown here,
either the diagonals have been left intact while the other numbers
were inverted, or else the maker was so familiar with it that he
just wrote it right down, beginning at the upper right in Islamic
fashion.
To do the magic square of five, the maker seems to have first
tried to reverse the main diagonals of a natural square, since this
tactic had proved effective in making the squares for the lesser
21 3 4 12 25
4 14 15 1
2 7 6 4 14 15 15 17 6 19 8
9 7 6 12
9 5 1 9 7 6 12 10 24 132 16
4 3 8 5 11 10 8 18 7 20 9 11
a. 16 2 3 13
b. 1 14 22 23 5
FIG. 2.-Early Islamic magic squares of

of the Ikhwan as-Safa.
numbers. Then, when this failed to work, he simply reversed

of the main diagonals, after which he exchanged four pair
numbers above the other diagonal (still intact), and four pa
below it, until he had achieved a balance. He did this in such a
that every opposing pair of numbers, equidistant from the cent
is complementary; that is, each pair would give a sum of 26, tw
the middle number, so the latter serves as a mean between them
Thus, this was a perfectly good "associated" magic square, b
the rather clumsy method of doing it suggests an early, gropi
effort to solve the problem of construction.
For the magic square of six, the maker apparently began
halving the sequence from 1 to 36 and writing it in two parall
columns, reversing the direction of the second, to produce eigh
complementary pairs. Ten of these pairs he took to make five 4
blocks which he set out in a cross, then he split the last eight p
and set the numbers in the opposing corners, doing this in suc
way that the four numbers in each of the nine blocks give the
of 74 (see Figure 3a). This uniquely Islamic solution for the mag
square of six remained in use for several centuries.
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A German scholar has noted that if this early Islamic magic

square of six were split into four quarters, and if these were then
diagonally exchanged, the result would be a bordered magic
square.23 However, that does not mean that this example had
originally been constructed as a bordered square, and then perhaps
split up to conceal its method of construction. In the first place,
the magic square of four that would form the core of this hypothe-
tical bordered square was a highly sophisticated one, the pattern
for which was not known in the Islamic world until some two
centuries later. Then, too, its particular arrangement would
Indian,24 but the Hindus do not seem to have ever used bordered
magic squares.25 Moreover, magic squares of six made by t
11 22 32 5 23 18 47 11 8 9 6 45 49
253016
25 16 7 13 7
2030 13 20 4 37 20 17 16 35 46
27 6 27
35 36 6 35 36 4 2 18 26 21 28 32 48
4 3
10 31 10 31341
1 2 33 2 33 34 43 19 27 25 23 31 7
14 19 8 29 2615 383622292414 12
24 17 28 9 12 21 40 15 30 33 34 13 10
?a* 'b. 1 39 42 41 44 5 3
FIG. 3.-Early Islamic magic squares of six and seven. From the Rasa'il o
Ikhwan as-Saffa.
deployment of numbers in 2x2 subsquares continued to be

popular in the Islamic world for at least six centuries, and some of
the later examples could not be split up and reassembled as
bordered squares, although most of them could be.26 Conversely,
23 Hermelink, op. cit. (n. 21 above), pp. 210-11. As stated in the text above, it
seems most unlikely that the square of four which appears at the core of the new
square, after one reassembles this early Islamic square of six, actually served as
the basis for constructing the latter, as Hermelink implied. If it had, the square
illustrated in Fig. 7, in the text above, would have served as the pattern, but the
numbering would have begun at the upper left, in the Indian style, and the short
sequences would have used odd and even numbers alternately: 1, 3, 5, 7; 2, 4, 6,
8; etc. One would not expect to find that degree of sophistication, either in India
or in the Islamic areas, at that early date (ninth century A.D.). On the contrary,
one finds later Islamic magic squares of six made exactly the same way as this
early one (see ref. in n. 26 below), so there seems no reason to doubt that the
Brothers' magic square of six was made just the way it appears, with no question
of splitting and reassembling.
24 See previous note.
25 The North Indian Muslims, however, being under strong cultural influence
from Persia, used bordered squares. The Qanoon-e-Islam (n. 1 above) shows
bordered squares of six and ten, for example, although its magic square of six is
done in a different technique.
26 S;fif Kemal al-Tustari, in his book on magic squares entitled Ghayat al-Murdd,
written in 1448, illustrates a magic square of six made in this same technique, and
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it seems quite possible that someone in the Islamic world did try
the experiment of splitting up this earliest Islamic square of six-
or one like it-and then, upon discovering that its center was a
magic square of four, he might have learned how to make bordered
squares for "singly-even" numbers around a magic square of four
as a core; for this technique seems to have been a distinct Islamic
contribution. We shall discuss its further development later.
In most manuscripts of the Rasd'il the above four squares are
the only ones illustrated,27 but all the manuscripts describe three
more squares, and at least one pictures the latter.28 Two of these
are so very primitive that they suggest tentative experiments
with a new technique, although one of them shows some Chinese
influence, while the third is in purely Chinese style. In other words,
their form seems quite consistent with the four more familiar
ones, and there seems no reason to question the assumption that
all seven must originally have belonged together in one group, at
the earliest stage in the development of magic squares in the Near
East.
For the square of eight, the Arab or Persian maker tried to
apply the same principles that had been used in doing the magic
square of six, by first concentrating on filling the central cross
(two middle columns and two middle rows), then the diagonals
and finally filling in the rest. Apparently, he did not yet realize
that there was a radical distinction between "singly-even" and
"doubly-even" numbers which necessitated separate techniques
for making magic squares with them; so it did not work at al
well. The result once again shows a groping attempt to achieve
balance without having any adequate system, and the initial
confusion is compounded in the published example by an excessive
number of garbles.
The magic square of nine is similarly inept. Here, the maker
first attempted to arrange the numbers on a Lo-Shu framework or
skeleton, in the familiar Chinese style, but he failed; finally he had
in this case it does not form a bordered square when its quarters are exchanged
The manuscript of this book, in the Columbia University Library, has unnumbere
pages, making precise citation impossible.
27 A typical manuscript of the Rasd'il is one in the Bibliotheque Nationale in
Paris (Ms. arabe 2304). A partial translation of this by F. Dieterici, in Die Pro-
paedeutik der Araber in zehnte Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1865), contains the magic
squares of three, four, five, and six, and merely the empty frames for the las
three; probably the copyist found them too confusing, or too garbled, to bothe
with. (Incidentally, in Dieterici's time, this Paris MS had another number:
1005.)
28 The MS which served as the basis for the Cairo edition of 1928, referred to
in n. 21 above.
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to break this pattern in order to make the square come out right.
He did not even succeed in making it associated. Once again, this
was horribly garbled in transmission.
By contrast, the Brothers' magic square of seven was a very
nice one. Here, the maker took the nine middle numbers of the
sequence from 1 to 49-namely, 21 to 29-and arranged these in
an inverted Lo-Shu pattern to form a central core. Then he took
the next nine complementary pairs and set them opposite each
other to make a border around the core. Finally, he used the
twelve remaining complementary pairs to make an outer border
around the whole. These were so carefully arranged that if the
outer border is removed, the remaining square is still magic, and if
the inner border is taken off, there still remains the magic square
of the third order which formed the core. Thus, he produced a
"concentric, bordered magic square."
While a bordered square built around a Lo-Shu core was an Old
Chinese device, this is the earliest published example of it, and
the first concentric one yet known.29 In Europe the bordered
squares are usually said to have been invented by Michael Stifel,
the friend and contemporary of Luther and Melanchthon, who
presented some of these in his Arithmetica integra, printed in
1544.30 In fact they are still known in Germany as "Stifel squares"
(Stifelsche Quadrate), although we now see that they were known
hundreds of years before his time, and they were probably trans-
mitted to Europe from the Islamic world, though the links are not
yet all complete.
The fact that the magic squares in this early set presented by
the Brothers of Purity were each constructed on a rather different
system should not be taken as a demonstration of versatility. It
simply shows that the art of making magic squares was still so
new and unfamiliar to the Islamic scholars that they did not know
of any single system for making successive odd-number magic
squares; nor did they yet know that the method used in making
their square of four could also be applied for making squares of
29 The Chinese bordered magic square of seven pictured by Yang Hui had a
more cleverly constructed core, but it was not a concentric square.
30 Published in Nuremburg. On pp. 25-26a, Stifel publishes several examples
which follow the one shown here (in Fig. 3b above) in having its numbering
beginning in the outermost frame and working in to the core and out again.
Wilhelm Ahrens, in "Nochmal die magischen Quadrate," Der Islam, XIV (1925),
109, assumes that bordered magic squares were an Islamic invention. It would
seem, however, that the earliest bordered squares for odd numbers were Chinese,
while those for even numbers were probably invented by the Muslims. However,
there is no question that both types were transmitted to Europe from the Islamic
world.
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eight and other doubly even numbers. At this early stage, the
construction of magic squares was still a most difficult and time-
consuming task, and the few who were able to do this at all must
have seemed to others of that time to be magicians indeed.
On the other hand, these men of the Middle East did not feel
themselves bound to any one tradition, as the Chinese had been in
their single-minded devotion to the Lo-Shu; because for them the
magic square of three did not carry such a burden of specific
symbols. They were also unlike the Chinese in not being content
to remain at the primitive level of magic square construction,
where the square for each number had to be built by a somewhat
different method. They sought more general solutions, by which
anyone could make a succession of magic squares for a whole series
of odd or even numbers.
We find an initial step in the Brothers' encyclopedia, which went
on to describe how to make the magic square of three (in its
Lo-Shu form) by setting out the numbers in terms of chess moves:
"First, two knight's leaps, then a pawn's step," etc.31 Actually,
this was not an entirely new development: although the chess
terms were new, the Old Chinese had devised a method for stepping
through the Lo-Shu pattern as a kind of ritual, which they called
"the paces of Yii."32 The significant thing is that the Chinese had
never carried this any further; whereas the conception of move-
ment within the confines of the square diagram seems to hav
aroused the curiosity of the Islamic (and Indian) scholars, leading
them to investigate the possibilities of this still further, with som
interesting results.
Someone in the Islamic world-possibly in Persia, before the
Mongol invasions of the early thirteenth century-seems to have
made the great breakthrough, finding a way to make a series of
magic squares for successive odd numbers by a method of con-
tinuous numbering. Unfortunately, there is still only very scanty
information about the development of magic squares in Persia
before the thirteenth century, because of the destructive Mongol
conquests of Iran and Iraq, which followed a period of bitter
sectarian warfare that destroyed much of the Sfifi literature.
However, it seems probable that some of the highest achievements
in the development of magic squares must have taken place there,
to judge from later writings that were obviously based on very
31 See Ahrens, "Studien" (n. 1 above), pp. 207-08, for a discussion of this
square made by chess moves.
32 See S. Cammann, "The Magic Square of Three ... "(n. 2 above), pp. 79-80,
for a discussion of "the paces of Yii."
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advanced earlier foundations,33 and the Sufis must have played a

prominent part in this.
Several treatises on the art of making magic squares were
written by Islamic scholars during the thirteenth century, which
seems to have been a high period for the development of Islamic
magic squares, especially in Persia and North Africa (including
Egypt). Two studies of the subject from this period-in addition
to al-Bfuni's writings already cited-give some idea of the high
stage reached in the Islamic world at this time. The first is a
Persian manuscript in the Princeton University Library, with a
date corresponding to A.D. 1212,34 and the second is a manuscript
book in Persian, preserved in the British Museum, supposedly
from A.D. 1211.35 These two writings are of special interest in
showing the first examples of a new continuous method for making
magic squares. In the first manuscript, the system is fully developed
and is used with considerable sophistication; but the Persian book
tops this, displaying extreme versatility. (It shows squares in
which the short sequences appear in scrambled order-only the
third being always in place-some of them even having reversed
sequences.36) This suggests a long, previous period of experimen-
tation.
This Islamic continuous method may have been discovered in
either of two ways, by someone who was exploring the further
possibilities of the magic square of three. For example, the origina-
tor might have first written the natural square of five in a diamond,
and then shifted the three numbers at each point of the diamond
into the gaps at the opposite side, in an extension of one process
for making the Lo-Shu square (see Figure 4).37 Or else he may
have carefully studied the Lo-Shu square of three, and seen that
the numbers in it had certain principles of motion that had
previously been overlooked, after which he applied these to
making a larger square. It would seem most likely that the method
was first discovered by using the diamond process, and that then
the innovator, or some colleague of his, happened to notice that
the numbering in the resulting magic square proceeded in a
continuous fashion, which echoed a pattern of movement in the
33 Among these is the book of al-Tustari, Ghayat al-Murad (n. 26 above).
34 Garrett Collection, No. 1057.
35 The title page of this MS (Add. 7713) is missing, but the catalogue says that
it is presumed to date from A.H. 608, or A.D. 1211.
36 Ibid., pp. 5b-6b. These look very puzzling at first, because the lack of real
continuity makes the "break moves" seem especially erratic.
37 This method appears in Old Islamic books, and, as we shall see, it was
rediscovered in Europe by Bachet de Meziriac, in the seventeenth century.
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Lo-Shu square that even the Chinese-in spite of all their pre-
occupation with that square-had never discovered.
The unknown innovator must then have looked back at the
magic square of three, to see it in a new way. Just as in his new
square of five, the succession of numbers now seemed to presen
dynamic, continuous process, no longer confined within th
bounds of a rectangle, or forced to proceed by an erratic com
bination of knight's leaps and pawn's steps. In both these square
(of three and five), he viewed the progression of the numbers a
single, flowing motion, proceeding diagonally downward fr
the number 1 (below the center cell), dropping below the bottom
line to reappear at the top, and crossing over the right edge
6 2
11 7 3
16 12 8 4
1 21 17 13 9 5 11 24 7 20 3
4 2 22 18 14 10 4 12 25 8 16
7 5 3 4 9 2 23 19 15 17 5 13 21 9
8 6 3 5 7 24 20 10 18 1 14 22
9 b. 8 1 6 25 d 23 6 19 2 15
FIG. 4.-The diamond method used

of five (d).
reappear at the left. It must have appeared as though the top and
bottom of the square could meet to form a horizontal cylinder,
around which the numbers could entwine; while, in a seeming
paradox, the left and right sides could also meet to form a vertical
cylinder around which the numbers could spiral downward.-
Actually, these two diverse requirements can be satisfied by an
anchor ring, or torus.38
In the diagonally downward course, after meeting the base
number 3 (or 5) or one of its multiples, the experimenter encoun-
tered a block, finding the next cell already occupied, so he was
forced to drop two cells for the following number, in order to be
able to continue on in the same direction. This slight deflection
from the forward progress is now called the "break move."
38 The reader might test this for himself, by writing the square on a thick
plaster ring, or with Chinese ink on a plain doughnut! It can also be done by
making a long narrow square on thin paper, then bending this until the top and
bottom lines meet, and finally joining the ends of this tube until the side lines
meet also.
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In the magic square of three, this drop of two cells is not so

obvious; for, after the 3 and the 6, dropping two cells gives the same
effect as rising one cell. But it is finally apparent after the 9 (the
last multiple of the base number 3), when the break move requires
a drop of two cells to return to the 1; because, in all these contin-
uous magic squares, the last break move, after the highest number
in the square, leads back to the 1, to start the cycle all over again,
for a potentially endless round.
The next step was to try this continuous system of numbering
for making magic squares of odd numbers above three and five,
and it worked beautifully. Now, a magic square for any odd
number could be quickly and easily accomplished by setting out
the numbers of the required sequence one after the other in their
regular order, following a general plan which was only a natural
extension of the pattern already present in the magic square of
three. This was a major application of the Lo-Shu, which the
Chinese apparently never discovered.
Until recently, the earliest known examples of this Islamic
continuous method were some preserved in a treatise on magic
squares written by a Byzantine scholar, Manuel Moschopoulos, in
the early fourteenth century.39 Consequently, it has long been
called "the Method of Moschopoulos." However, this Greek author
was not a mathematician; instead, he was known as a literary man
and translator, so it appears that he must have been merely pass-
ing on information that he had encountered in some Arabic or
Persian works. We have already mentioned the Persian manu-
script of 1212 in the Princeton University Library, and the
slightly later Persian book in the British Museum, both of which
pictured squares made by this method; in addition, both contained
examples of other types of squares which Moschopoulos illustrated
and is wrongly supposed to have invented.40 Thus, there is no
doubt of the priority of this continuous method of construction in
the Islamic world.
39 The best study of Moschopoulos and his work is by Paul Tannery, "Le
traite de Manuel Moschopoulos sur les carr6s magiques." First written in Paris,
in 1886, this appears in Tannery's Memoires scientifiques, IV (Paris and Toulouse,
1920), pp. 27-60. An English translation of this by John Calvin McCoy appears in
Scripta Mathematica, VIII (1941), pp. 15-26. Sarton, in his Introduction to the
History of Science, III, Part I (n. 21 above), 679-80, discusses Moschopoulos, but
makes a number of false statements, saying, for example, that his treatise is
perhaps the earliest in any language, and that it reveals no Arabic influence. If
his inspiration was not directly Arabic, it was at least Islamic.
40 The Islamic magic squares of four (shown in Figs. 2b [above] and 7 [below]);
and magic squares of eight and twelve made by the Islamic method of marking
diagonals and using double sequences; as well as squares of five and seven made
by the knight's move. (These latter types will be described in the text.)
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Given the climate of religious belief during this medieval

period-especially among the Sfif mystics of Islam-it is possible
to understand how these continuous magic squares, in which the
motion was perpetuated after passing through the middle number
at the heart of the plan, inevitably increased the already strong
reverence for that middle number. Thoughtful Muslims, since the
time of the Brothers of Purity, had considered magic squares in
general as small models of the Universe; now they could view these
as symbolic representations of Life in a process of endless flux,
constantly being renewed through contact with a divine source at
the center of the cosmos. The fact that some of the more devout
Muslims actually considered the middle number as a symbol of
God (Allah) seems confirmed by occasional manuscripts in which
the maker of squares refused to write this down, simply leaving a
blank cell in the center of the square.
There were other reasons why the middle number could be
taken as a symbol of Allah. This middle number, when multiplied
by the base number of the square (n), "becomes" the constant
sum of all the rows and columns and the two principal diagonals;41
so it could symbolize Allah as measuring and regulating the length
and breadth of the Universe, controlling and sustaining all things.
Again, the same middle number, when multiplied by the highest
number in the square (n2), "becomes" the total sum of all the
numbers in the square, greater than all the rest yet comprising
all of them within itself;42 this could symbolize Allah the Ultimate
and Transcendent, containing all within his essential unity.
Perhaps this line of thinking might have shocked some of the
orthodox Muslims, but it would certainly have accorded with one
of the main currents of Sufif thought.
From this kind of reasoning, it was only a step to the thought
that these symbols of the Universe with its Sustainer were not
only symbolic depictions of motion and creativity, but were
actual possessors of universal power. It was qualities of this sort
that led the men of old to consider these numerical diagrams as
magical or mysterious, and the next step was to use them for
making magic charms and talismans, with the idea that their
supposed indwelling strength might be utilized to work for good
or evil ends.
Later Islamic books occasionally show magic squares made by
41 The formula for this is mn =-C, where in stands for the nmiddle number, and
C for the constant sum.
42 The formula for this is mn2=C.
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another technique of continous numbering (Figure 5). We may

call this "the Hindu continuous method," since it seems to have
been invented in India by someone who looked at the inverted
Lo-Shu magic square of three-the form preferred by the Hindus-
and saw in it similar principles of motion, which he applied to
making larger magic squares of odd numbers with somewhat
17 24 1 8 15
8 1 6 23 5 7 14 16
3 5 7 4 6 13 20 22
4 9 2 10 12 19 21 3
Q.
b. . 1 18 25 2 9
FIa. 5.-A Hindu continuous magic square of five (b), compared with tle
inverted Lo-Shu square of three.
different results, as we shall see in Part II. This method was never
very popular with the Muslims, probably because a difference of
construction caused it to lack the principle of renewal through
the middle number. The Hindus do not seem to have been in-
terested in the middle number, but they found in the sq
made by their method other interesting properties that
illustrate some particular beliefs of their own.
18 10 22 14 1 2 14 21 8 20 15 2 19 6 23
12 4 16 8 25 23 10 17 4 11 16 8 25 12 4
6 23 15 2 19 19 1 13 25 7 22 14 1 18 10
5 17 9 21 13 15 22 9 16 3 3 20 7 24 11
24 11 3 20 7 .6 18 5 12 24 9 21 13 5 17
0. b. c.
FIG. 6.-Islamic
down to left, b
cells to left; (c)
Still a thir
proceeding
knight's mo
books of the
the Indians
43 Several exam
Those in the Ca
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method, the numbers are set out by moving two cells up (or down)
and one over-in the Muslim world, more frequently to the left-
making break moves after the multiples of the base number, as
usual (see Figure 6). Sometimes they varied the system, by
making "extended knight's moves," taking longer steps vertically
or horizontally, or both.
One very special quality of these knight's-move squares is their
flexibility, their capacity for changing form without losing their
properties. One or more rows can be moved from top to bottom
(or vice versa) and columns can be shifted from one side to the
other, without affecting their "magic" qualities. Since their
essence remained unchanged in spite of rather drastic surface
alterations, these squares were thus effective symbols of an inner
stability in an outwardly changing Universe.
Furthermore, this same quality made it possible to have any
number in the center cell, whereas all the other kinds of magic
squares required the middle number of the sequence in the center.
The Islamic scholars discovered this property, and they utilized
it to make unit-centered magic squares.44 For them, these unit-
centered examples were particularly rich in symbolism, because 1,
as the beginning of numbers and the sign of unity, was an obvious
symbol for Allah the Creator, the ultimate One; and, since the
numbering begins at the 1 in the center and the final break move
leads back to it, these little diagrams of the cosmos in miniature
provided graphic illustrations of the Islamic concept that Allah
is for all things both the Source and the Destination.
In still another respect, these unit-centered magic squares
embodied the Muslim idea that everything springs from the One
and all will ultimately return to the One. The medieval Islamic
mathematicians often practiced "horizontal addition," also
called "casting out nine's."45 Taking a larger number they would
add its digits, and continue to add, until they reduced it to a
single digit. When they did this to the total sum of all the numbers
in a magic square of five, the sum of 325 would be reduced to 1;
for 3+ 2 + 5 = 10, and 1 +0 = 1.-This also worked for the unit-
centered magic squares of seven, where the grand total of 1225
also reduces to 10, then to 1.46
The Islamic knight's-move squares were also remarkable in
being "pandiagonal." For the numbers in every partial diagonal
44 Examples in British Museum Add. 7713, p. 23; and in al-Tustari's Ghayat al-
Murdd, among the magic squares of seven.
45 See Smith, History of Mathematics, I, 151-52.
46 This idea goes back at least as far as Hippolytus; see ibid. p. 152.
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can be added to those in the complementary partial diagonal at

the opposite corner of the square, so that together they will give
the constant sum. (For instance, in Figure 6a, add 22, 4, 6, in the
upper left corner, and 13 and 20 in the lower right, to get the
constant sum of 65.) This additional attribute made these knight's-
move magic squares seem particularly "magical."
The early thirteenth century Islamic books on magic squares,
previously cited, reveal an intense preoccupation with magic
squares of four. Early in their study of this particular form, one
of the Near Eastern scholars happened upon a pandiagonal one,
and in deference to Classical Antiquity it was ascribed to Plato.
With the possible exception of the magic square of three, this
became the most popular and best-known magic square in the
Islamic world (see Figure 7).
8 11 14 1
13 2 7 12
3 16 9 6
10 5 4 15
FIG. 7.-The basic pandiagonal magic square of five
The Persians and Arabs soon found that, by

of this pandiagonal square of four as a model
the numbers from 1 to 16 in various possible
could make a great many more. Actually, by u
that basic pandiagonal, with different orde
sequence, it is possible to obtain 431 other mag
including forty-seven other pandiagonals; and
numbers in some of these, one can get 448 mo
different magic squares of four. Furthermore
count "rotations" and "reflections" of a giv
being separate squares, the medieval manusc
Islamic scholars did;47 thus they would hav
magic squares of four.
The Persian and Arab mathematicians may
in systematically working out every possible c
never found a complete set of the magic sq
Islamic book.) However, they obtained enough
to convince them that their basic pandiagon
47 British Museum Add. 7713 contains a great many m
some of which are rotations and reflections of others shown.
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capacity to "produce" a vast number of other squares, and the

belief in its apparent powers of creativity led them to consider it
a source of power in itself. As such, they engraved it on rings and
amulets for protection against sickness and other evils; they
incised it in metal bowls and medicine cups to influence or purify
the contents;48 and they inlaid it in gold on sword blades of fine
Damascus steel to improve their cutting power,49 to mention only
a few of its numerous applications.
The seeming creativity of the original pandiagonal square of
four was probably enough to suggest that it could be taken as a
symbol of Allah the Creator; but the full impact of this symbolic
idea must have been further increased on finding that the sum of
all the numbers in each of the numerous squares made from it
could be reduced-through "horizontal addition"-to the all-
embracing 1. Again, this would have satisfied the Sufis as a
seeming confirmation of their beliefs; because all the derived
squares came from the same source, and in each case their com-
ponent elements could go back to the one.
A somewhat different application of Numerology provided still
further reasons for regarding the magic squares of four as potent
magic charms. Their constant sum, 34, when added horizontally
reduced to 7, and the number seven played a prominent part in
medieval Islamic symbolism. For example, the Muslims believed
that the Universe contained seven heavens, seven seas, and seven
hells, while our Earth was divided into seven climes, and strongly
influenced by the Seven Planets.50 Then there were the Seven
Angels, and the Seven Kings of the Genii, as well as the Seven
Prophets who presided over the seven days of the week.51 All of
these could be considered as being somehow present in the magic
squares of four, due to the recurring sevens in the constants; so this
made them even more effective symbols of the Universe, as well
as contributing to their fancied power and protective ability.
Having mastered numerous magic squares of four that were
made with the regular sequence, the men of the Islamic world
went on to try further experiments with magic squares of the
fourth order. Some of them worked with 4x 4 squares using
48 See Tewfiq Canaan, "Arabic Magic Bowls," Journal of the Palestine Oriental
Society, XVI (1936), 79-127.
49 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, has a number of
swords with magic squares on their blades in its Arms and Armor Collection. For
other Islamic uses for magic squares, see the Qanoon-e-Islam (n. 1 above), pp.
355-56.
50 See Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Amulets and Superstitions (London, 1950),
51 Ibid., pp. 43 and 45.
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different kinds of sequences: higher numbers (making "augmented

squares"52), alternating numbers, or even four separate short
sequences with their initial numbers taken at equal distances.
Makers of talismans often placed in the top row one of the four-
letter names for God (of which they had at least ninety-nine53);
then, considering these letters as abjad numbers, they filled out
the rest of the square by using regular numbers which would
complete the required sums. These last squares were especially
valued as charms, with the idea that the presence of God's name
would impart some of His power, and al-Buini presented a con-
siderable number of these to be used for that purpose. 54
Increasing familiarity with magic squares of four led on to the
making of magic squares of eight and twelve, by various systems
of consecutive numbering, which were essentially merely expan-
sions of the patterns that appeared in the more familiar squares of
four, repeated in each 4 x 4 block. One favorite method for making
the magic squares of eight (or twelve) was to take a blank pattern
of 64 (or 144) cells, and divide the field into subsquares of sixteen
cells each, marking the cells in the main diagonals of all the sub-
squares with a dot. Then, beginning at the upper right, they would
move left along each row, from top to bottom, counting out the
regular sequence and writing a number in each dotted cell as
they came to it. On reaching the bottom left corner, they would
reverse the process. Beginning again with the same sequence, they
would move to the right along each row, climbing upward until
they regained the starting point, filling each empty cell in passing. 55
This method of filling a square by marking cells and repeating the
sequence was effective for making magic squares of any doubly
even number.
The Persian writers of the thirteenth century A.D. also demon-
strated a somewhat similar method for handling the magic
52 Augmented squares are magic squares made with a sequence of consecutive
numbers higher than the usual one (from 1 to n2), because the result is equivalent
to adding the same amount to each number, or augmenting each by that amount.
For example, if we make a 3 x 3 square with the sequence 6-14, that is equivalen
to adding 5 to each number, or augmenting each number by 5. In some Islami
and Indian magic squares-especially those of the fourth order-only one or
two of the short sequences are augmented, so part of the square remains the same,
but the constant sum is increased to provide a desired number with more auspicious
connotations.
53 The ninety-nine names or attributes of God are listed in Qanoon-e-
pp. 358-65.
54 Many squares with the top row lettered are shown by al-Bini in his
al-ma'drif. See Ahrens' comments and explanations on these in "Magis
Quadrate al-Buni's," esp. pp. 164-66.
65 As previously stated in n. 40, Moschopoulos described this method. See
Tannery, "Trait6 de Manuel Moschopoulos ...," pp. 43-49.
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squares for singly-even numbers (completing these by finally

breaking the symmetry);56 but, as this system was characteristi-
cally Indian, we shall wait to discuss it when we describe the Hindu
magic squares.
The ability to build magic squares of odd numbers by con-
tinuous methods also led them to make whole sets of these, which
they could then combine to make enormous composite magic
squares. For example, to make a magic square of twenty, they
would arrange the numbers from 1 to 400 in sixteen magic squares
of the fifth order, which they then set out in the pattern of their
first pandiagonal magic square of four.57
Why should they wish to make such large magic squares? It
was certainly not for magical purposes, because for these they
seldom used anything larger than a 9 x 9 square, preferring smaller
ones that could be easily inscribed or engraved on amulets. There
were several reasons. In the first place, in a culture in which
representational painting was frowned upon, when it was not
actually forbidden,58 the creative instincts in men of artistic
temperament found a satisfying means of self-expression in
forming these superb examples of balanced harmony under seem-
ing complexity. Secondly, the religious-minded Muslims must
have enjoyed creating them as symbols of a complex yet harmo-
nious universe, expressing the divine order. But for the mystical
minded, the larger squares provided something special to increase
their sense of awe. For example, returning to the magic square of
twenty, just mentioned, we find that by horizontal addition the
total sum of 80,200 reduces to 10, then to 1. Thus it illustrates
still more impressively the key concept of the Sufis that all sprang
from the One, and to that One all will ultimately return.
Actually, in many magic squares the total sum of all the num-
bers can be reduced to 1, in this fashion. (Only in magic squares
of numbers divisible by 3 is this impossible, for in them the total
sum always reduces to 9.) But the Islamic scholars probably did
not immediately discover that this effect was so general. There-
fore, each recurrence of the phenomenon must have struck them
with the force of a new revelation; and when they encountered it
in the exceedingly large squares, the effect must have seemed
56 Examples are given in British Museum Add. 7713, pp. 112-114.

57 An example in ibid., p. 164; and another in Ghayat al-Murdd.
58 For the attitude toward painting in Islam, see Sir Thomas W. Arnold,
Painting in Islam, Dover Ed. (New York, 1965), pp. 4-12. He points out that
the painting of pictures was not especially forbidden in the Qur'&n; actually, the
strong feeling against it springs from the Traditions of the Prophet (Hadith).
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unusually awesome.59 Seekers after Truth, they found intimations

of God even when they were only playing with numbers.
A last distinctive Islamic contribution was a much higher
development of the Old Chinese technique of making bordered
magic squares. By the thirteenth century, Middle Eastern scholars
possessed three different systems for constructing odd-number
magic squares around a Lo-Shu-style core, and they had similar
methods for making magic squares of even numbers around a
4 x 4 square.
The first of these systems was described by al-Bufni, writing
near the beginning of the thirteenth century,60 though he did not
claim to have invented it.61 To make magic squares of odd
numbers, he used as a core the first three numbers of the regular
sequence, the three numbers at the middle, and the last three,
using the rest of the numbers to fill out the successive bordering
frames.
In the actual construction, he first made the core, then he
took the first half of the remaining numbers, and worked outward
frame by frame, filling half of each in a rhythmic, rather zigzag
pattern, out to the farthest rim; then, taking the second set of
numbers, he worked back in reverse order, setting each number
opposite its complement, until he got back to the inner core.
There, the final number of the sequence led back to the first again,
by merely stepping through the middle number. Thus we find,
here also, the notion of beginning at the center and returning to
the center, as well as the idea of renewal through the vital middle
number.-In a way, this diagram of the Universe is more true to
real life than those made by the faster continuous methods; since
human life is seldom swiftly continuous, but has many zigs and
zags and seeming pauses in its tortuous course.
To make bordered magic squares for even numbers, al-Bfni
followed the same general principles, but he used a different
pattern. Here, the core was always a magic square of the fourth
order, made-in any of the numerous ways-with the first eight
numbers, and the last eight, of the regular sequence. After placing
59 Al-Tustari shows a magic square of 29 x 29, made by the Indian continuous
method, but in an Islamic way-proceeding upward to the left. Its total sum,
354,061, reduces to 19, then to 10, then finally to 1.
60 See B. Carra de Vaux, "Une Solution arabe du probleme des carres magiques,"
Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, I (1948), 206-12.
61 Al-Bumn had the usual hesitancy toward admitting innovations, and he
constantly appealed to old tradition. He usually referred his method to the
writings of Hasan al-Basri (d. A.D. 728), though the latter lived far too early to
have known the sophisticated methods employed by al-Binl. On this point, see
Hermelink, op. cit. (n. 21 above), p. 204.
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the first eight digits in the core, he set out the remaining numbers
of the first half of the sequence in an elaborate zigzag pattern,
which altered in each second frame, out to the outer rim. Then he
took the second half of the sequence and worked his way back
again to the core, in which he placed the last eight numbers in com-
plementary relation to the first eight. Thus, he created an even
more smoothly flowing-though still erratic-depiction of the
soul's journey outward from the source of life and its eventual
return.
He, or his predecessor, devised the system of changing the

pattern in each alternate frame of these magic squares for even
numbers, in order to cope with the differences between the
singly-even and doubly-even numbers with their separate require-
ments. This method of making bordered squares remains the most
convenient single system by which to construct magic squares of
any even number; and, since the method for making magic
squares of odd numbers is closely related, taken together these
constitute the nearest approach, yet known, to a general system
for constructing magic squares of any number.
The other two Islamic systems for making bordered magic
squares followed the same general principles, except for the precise
way in which the numbers were set out in the frames; both began
at the outer rim and worked in to the central core, then back
again.62 Using these various systems, the Muslim scholars con-
structed huge squares up to 30 x 30. The latter, one of the largest
squares they ever made, could produce the constant sum of 13,515
in sixty-two ways.63
We have already noted that Michael Stifel helped to introduce
bordered magic squares to Europeans in the mid-sixteenth century.
These had a special appeal for the scholars of France during the
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; but did not arouse
much interest elsewhere, especially after the introduction of the
faster, continuous methods, shortly before 1700.
One of the later developments in the history of Islamic magic
squares was the use of a particular set of squares to represent
"the Seven Planets" (the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter,
Venus, and Saturn). As we have previously noted, these were
believed to be able to influence things on Earth, including the
lives of men. The idea seems to have been foreshadowed by al-
62 Both of these methods are illustrated by al-Tustari in Ghayat al-Murdd.

83 See ibid., for an example.
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Buni, who used a set of seven 7 x 7 lettered squares to represent

the days of the week,64 which were also closely associated with
the Seven Planets.65 Later, the idea of using planetary magic
squares became a regular practice, but then they used different
squares, for the numbers from three to nine. The usual set began
with the magic square of three for Saturn, four for Jupiter, five
for Mars, six for the Sun, seven for Venus, eight for Mercury, and
nine for the Moon; but an alternative set took the planets in
reverse order: the magic square of three for Saturn, four for Mercury,
etc.
In this astrological tradition, there was apparently no longer

any thought of regarding the magic square as a mystical diagram
by which one might deepen or enhance one's communion with the
Universe, or with the Maker and Orderer of that Universe. They
were now, quite frankly, mere tools of magic, to be used in order to
draw strength from the indicated "planets" and thus to gain
power over men and Nature. Gradually this "practical" view of
magic squares displaced the mystical and philosophical aspects,
until finally the idea that they were simply magic charms or
talismans took over completely.
As this process seems to have largely taken place before the
main introduction of magic squares to Europe, the Europeans
learned only the magical beliefs, and never seem to have glimpsed
the mathematical properties that had suggested the metaphysical
aspect.66 If they had known of the latter, they might possibly
have tried to reinterpret the squares in terms of Christian philo-
sophy and symbolism, just as the people of Islam had reinterpreted
earlier Chinese concepts regarding the squares as small models
of the Universe. However the Europeans simply took over the
concept of planetary squares as part of the paraphernalia of the
early Renaissance magician,67 and in most cases it seems doubtful
64 For Islamic magic squares associated with the Seven Planets, see William
Ahrens, "Studien," pp. 192-202, and his "Magischen Quadrate al-Bunis," pp.
168-171.
65 For further associations with the Seven Planets, see S. Cammann, "Chris
the Armenian and the Three Princes of Serendip." Comparative Literature S
IV (1967), p. 255, n. 77.
66 Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, De Occulta philosophia (Cologne, 1531),
chap. xxii, shows the darker side of the magical uses for magic squares in Renais-
sance Europe.
67 The planetary squares in Europe usually appeared in the first order mentioned
above, and they were presented thus by the German magician Agrippa of Nettes-
heim in 1531 (see previous note). However, eight years later, in Italy, Girolamo
Cardano published the same set assigned to the planets in the second (reverse)
order, in his Practica arithmetice et mensurandi singularis (Milan, 1539), chap.
xlii, item 39 (no pagination). We shall have more to say about these two men,
and their connection with magic squares, in Part II.
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if those who used them knew how to construct them. We shall have
more to say about magic squares in Europe, and the ways in
which people regarded them, in Part II, after discussing the
Indian magic squares which also contributed to the European
tradition.
o20

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Cammann IslamicIndianMagic 1969

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Islamic and Indian Magic Squares.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1061759

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In the Islamic world and in Hindu India peopl

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as mathematical curiosities or amusing games, and as such they

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SOURCES AND METHODS OF RESEARCH

Just as in previously dealing with the Chinese mag

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it, constituted an important element in the esoteric tradition, not

5 This thirteenth-century book is still being published in Cairo (I have a copy

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old Islamic books and manuscripts sometimes provide clues in

7 Niarayana's Ganita-kaumudi, ed. Padmekara Dvividi, was republished in The

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betraying the secret meanings to possible scoffers, or to the overly

THE CHINESE BACKGROUND

The earliest known magic square is the simple s

8 Cammann, "The Magic Square of Three ... "(n. 2 above).

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This is the only possible magic square of three to be made with

this they placed the rest in a bordering rim, thus making a

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ISLAMIC MAGIC SQUARES

When the Chinese ceased to value magic squares, about

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greater prestige to the charm. The square itself contained letters

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Figure 1. If this is the correct analysis, it might indicate that part

FIG. 2.-Early Islamic magic squares of

numbers. Then, when this failed to work, he simply reversed

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A German scholar has noted that if this early Islamic magic

deployment of numbers in 2x2 subsquares continued to be

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advanced earlier foundations,33 and the Sufis must have played a

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FIG. 4.-The diamond method used

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In the magic square of three, this drop of two cells is not so

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Given the climate of religious belief during this medieval

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another technique of continous numbering (Figure 5). We may

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can be added to those in the complementary partial diagonal at

FIG. 7.-The basic pandiagonal magic square of five

The Persians and Arabs soon found that, by

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capacity to "produce" a vast number of other squares, and the

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different kinds of sequences: higher numbers (making "augmented

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squares for singly-even numbers (completing these by finally

56 Examples are given in British Museum Add. 7713, pp. 112-114.

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unusually awesome.59 Seekers after Truth, they found intimations