How a top model made by Muslim Scientists in Mathematics
The concept of unity, at the core of the Muslim revelation, is the foundation for Islamic arts and sciences. All unparalleled Islamic art, whether in the Alhambra or the Paris Mosque, uses structural techniques to foresee how Divine Unity will present itself in diversity. Similarly, all legitimately Islamic sciences reveal the unity of Nature. The goal of the Islamic sciences, all medieval and ancient cosmological sciences, is to demonstrate the interconnectedness and unity of everything that exists to guide humans toward the unity of the Divine Principle, which is reflected in the unity of Nature.
The prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) was brought to Arabia in the seventh century A.D. Within ten years after his passing, the Muslims had gained the power of the whole Arabian Peninsula. Islam had expanded from Alhambra in Spain to China’s frontiers in less than a century. Islam brought philosophy, theology, and science together. Allah S.W.T. taught Muslims to learn from others’ experiences and seek Knowledge. This motivated Muslims to achieve greatness in science, medicine, math, astronomy, chemistry, philosophy, art, and architecture.
A few centuries after the Hijrah, Muslim scholars started acquiring Greek expositions and starting their study and conversion to Arabic. They remarkably examined, assembled, approved, and enhanced Greek philosophy and science. What is recognized as the Golden Age of Islam which is lasted for more than two centuries. Here we find several great Islamic scientists who contributed thousands of volumes in various scientific fields.
The contributions to mathematics
It is startling that Islam strongly desires to study and explore the cosmos.
For example, the Holy Qur’an states:
“We (Allah) will show you (mankind) our signs/patterns in the horizons/universe and yourselves until you are convinced that the revelation is the truth.” [Qur’an, 14:53]
Due to this incentive to explore and investigate, Muslims became captivated by mathematics, physics, medicine, and other sciences. Muslims created the symbol for zero and arranged the numerals into a base-10 decimal system. Additionally, they devised the symbol to accurately represent a variable like “X,” which is an unknown amount. Following is a brief biography of these outstanding Muslim scholars who made contributions to mathematics:
1. Muhammad bin Musa al-Khwarizmi:
Algebra was devised by Muhammad bin Musa al-Khwarizmi, the first notable Muslim mathematician, and afterward developed by others, most notably Omar Khayyam. Through Spain, AL Khwarizmi’s Latin translation of his work brought Arabic numerals and mathematics to Europe. His name is the reason the term “algorithm” was derived.
Persian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad was Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. About 780 years ago, in Persia, he was born. One of the intelligent men employed by the House of Wisdom was Al-Khwarizmi. He served as a member of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad under the administration of Caliph al-Mamun, the son of Caliph Haroon al-Rashid.
Al-Khwarizmi is credited as “the forefather” of modern algebra. He created trigonometric tables for sine, cosine, and angles, later translated to the West. “Hisab al-Jabr- wa al-Muqabalah,” also known as “The Calculation of Integration and Equation,” served as the primary mathematics textbook for European colleges until the 16th century. In it, he states that given an equation, al-Jabr, or collecting the unknowns in one side of the equation, and al-Mukabalah, or gathering the known in the other. Additionally, he listed six different sorts of fundamental equations:
(nx=m , x2 =nx , x2=m , m+nx+x2 & x2=m+nx) He also used geometrical justifications to explain the specific equation x2+21=10x
Al-Khwarizmi also helped to explain the decimal system, the notion of zero, and Arabic numerals. Interestingly, this algebra book included a lot of examples from the Islamic inheritance norms and how to handle them. He and a few others were the first to chart the globe.
2. Abu Abdullah al-Battani:
Abu Abdullah al-Battani was born in 862 A.D. Al-Battani was a notable astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer who was the son of a scientist. He is widely regarded as one of Islam’s finest astronomers. In mathematics, al-Battani became the first to substitute the technique of Greek chords with the idea of cotangent and to give their table in degrees. He wrote several works on astronomy and trigonometry. A few books are: Kitab az-Zij, “Book of Astronomical Tables” was followed by the al-Zij al-Sabi, a later version published around 900. The zijes are Ptolemaic in Nature, with little Hindu influence. The al-Zij al-Sabi is the primary work of Al-Battani. Kitab ma’rifat matali al-buruj” Knowledge of rising places of a zodiac sign,” Kitab fi Miqdar al-Etisalat “treatise on four quarters of a sphere,” Arba’u Maqalat “four discourses.” He died in 929 A.D. in Samara, Iraq.
3. Mohammad Bin Ahmed:
In the tenth century, Mohammad Bin Ahmed created the notion of zero or sifr. Thus, Roman numerals were replaced, resulting in a mathematical revolution. The revolution led to advancements in the computation of the world’s system and advancements in the domains of astronomy and geography. Both the Babylonian hexadecimal system and the Indian (Hindu) decimal system were incorporated into Muslim mathematics, laying the foundation for numerical techniques in mathematics. Muslims built mathematical models employing the decimal system, describing all numbers with ten symbols, and each sign allowed for positional and absolute value. Muslims invented several innovative techniques of doing multiplications, as well as methods of verifying by casting out nines and decimal fractions. Thus, Muslim intellectuals added and positioned the foundations of contemporary mathematics and its application in science and engineering.
4. Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham:
Al-Haytham, known in the West by the name Alhacen and then by Alhazen, was born roughly a thousand years ago in Basrah, Iraq, and died in Cairo, Egypt.
In the seventeenth century, Europe solved the “Alhazen’s problem” posed by Al- Hassan Ibn al-Haytham. Again, translated into Latin, his book made Europeans aware of al-Haytham’s remarkable achievements in Optics, “Kitab al-Manazir.” He developed a theory of vision and a theory of light known as “Ptolemy the Second” by his successors in the twelfth century. Furthermore, by supporting the use of experiments in scientific investigation, al-Haytham helped to set the stage for scientific Knowledge. Al-Haytham’s geometry and number theory contributions extended well beyond the Archimedean tradition.
Al-Haytham also describes the concept of analytical geometry and the early phases of the algebra-geometry relationship. This effort led to the harmonic integration of algebra and geometry in pure mathematics, illustrated by Descartes in geometric analysis and Newton in calculus. During the second part of the tenth century, Al-Haytham was a scientist who significantly contributed to mathematics, physics, and astronomy. In the late thirteenth century, John Peckham employed al-Kitab Haytham’s al-Manazir, and Witelo’s Optics also contains echoes of Kitab al-Manazir.
5. Abu Wafa Mohammad al-Buzanji:
Abu Wafa Muhammad al-Buzanji was born in Buzhjan, Iran, and died in Baghdad, Iraq(940 to 997 A.D.) He was a famous mathematician and astronomer. Al-Buzanji’s primary contribution is to numerous branches of mathematics, particularly geometry and trigonometry. In geometry, he added to a solution of geometrical problems by using the compass, construction of a square, a regular polyhedral equilateral, building of a regular hexagon, an equilateral triangle, structures of a parabola by points, and geometrical solution of the equations.
Al-Buzanji’s contribution to the advancement of trigonometry was vast. He was the first to demonstrate the generalization of the sine theorem to spherical triangles. He devised a novel method of building sine tables, with the value of sin 30 accurate to eight decimal places. He also pondered on a tangent and created tables for them. For the first time, he introduced the secant and cosecant. He wrote many works on mathematics and other disciplines, most of which have been destroyed or are only available in modified formats. He also wrote extensive essays on Euclid and al-Khwarizmi. A significant portion of today’s trigonometry may be traced back to him.
6. Jamshid al-Kashi:
Another exceptional mathematician Jamshid al-Kashi also known as Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid, measured al-Kashi. He worked in the field of number theory and computing algorithms. In 1424, he calculated a value of 2pi to sixteen decimal digits of precision using an 805306368 side polygon approximation of the circle. “Miftah-ul-Hissab,” or “The Calculators’ Key,” was one of his most important works, in which he established a method for obtaining the fifth root of any integer. Until the sixteenth century, the book was taught in Persian schools. Later in his life, at the king’s request, he moved to Samarkand to personally establish a new scientific school and observatory and study with other intellectuals of the period. Kashani also wrote about correctly solving a cubic equation to estimate sin.
Muslim scholars contributed not only to applying logic in the evolution of mathematical ideas and relationships but also to a practical approach to numeration that included zero and led to the solution of equations. Thus, Muslims began work on mathematical modeling and its application to evaluating their notions. This information and methodology were gradually transmitted to Europe via Spain and Sisley.
Edited by Eman Fatima
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