ISLAMIC MATHEMATICS

Mathematics in 9th Century

Thabit ibn Qurrah
• important translator and reviser of
these Greek works. In addition to
translating works of the major Greek
mathematicians,
• He also translated Nicomachus of
Gerasa’s Arithmetic and discovered a
beautiful rule for
finding amicable numbers, a pair of
numbers such that each number is the
sum of the set of proper divisors of the
other number. The investigation of
such numbers formed a continuing
tradition in Islam.
MUHAMMAD AL-KHWARIZMI
• OUTSTANDING PERSIAN
MATHEMATICIAN
• IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION
TO MATHEMATICS WAS HIS
STRONG ADVOCACY OF THE
HINDU ARABIC NUMBERS ,
AND THE NUMBER ZERO,
ALGEBRA, AND THE USE OF
GEOMETRY TO
DEMONSTRATRE AND PROVE
ALGEBRAIC RESULTS.
• MANY OF HIS WORKS DEAL
WITH ASTRONOMY, BUT HE
ALSO WROTE ABOUT THE
JEWISH CALENDAR,
 HINDU ARITHMETIC
Al-Khwarizmi wrote a very important treatise on Hindu-Arabic numerals, which made the use of
these numbers popular. The introduction of the number zero was especially important for
mathematic, and the number 0 was used for about 250 years throughout the Islamic world before
Europe ever heard of it. He also introduced the Hindu concept of decimal positioning notation to
the Arab and European worlds, which we still use today!
Working in the House of Wisdom, he introduced Indian material in his astronomical works and
also wrote an early book explaining Hindu arithmetic, the Book of Addition and Subtraction
According to the Hindu Calculation. In another work, the Book of Restoring and Balancing,
he provided a systematic introduction to algebra, including a theory of quadratic equations. Both
works had important consequences for Islamic mathematics. Hindu Calculation began a tradition
of arithmetic books that, by the middle of the next century, led to the invention of decimal
fractions (complete with a decimal point)
 ALGEBRAIC OPERATIONS
• Kitab al- jabr wa’l- muqabalah
• The words al-jabr and al-muqabalah were operations used by Al-
Khwarizmi, much like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
division. Al- jabr means something like “restoration” or “completion”,
and was the operation used to add equal terms to both sides of an
equation to get rid of a negative term.
• For example, with the equation
𝑥 2 = 40𝑥 − 4𝑥 2 ,
• Al-Khwarizmi uses al-jabr to add 4x² to both sides of the equation, getting the result:
5x² = 4x
• He can then complete the problem by division
x²=8x
x=8
• Though we now know x = 0 & 8, Al-Khwarizmi never allows a variable to equal zero.
• Al-muqabalah means something like “balancing”, and was the operation used subtract equal terms from both
sides of an equation. For example, al-Khwarizmi has the equation:
50+x²=29+10x,
• So he uses al-muqabalah to subtract 29 from each side, getting the result:
21+x²=10x.
• From here, Al-Khwarizmi can then complete the problem:
x²-10x+21=0
(x-7)(x-3)=0
x=3,7
• As you can see, al-muqabalah and al-jabr were operations defined by al-
Khwarizmi which we still use today, though we don’t call them the same
thing. His operation al-jabr, adding equal amounts to the both sides of
equation, is where our word “ALGEBRA ” comes from.
MATHEMATICS IN 10th Century
The first of these projects led to the During the 10th and 11th
appearance of three complete numeration centuries capable mathematicians,
systems, one of which was the finger such as Abūʾl-Wafāʾ (940–
arithmetic used by the scribes and 997/998), wrote on this system, but
treasury officials. This ancient arithmetic
system, which became known throughout it was eventually replaced by the
the East and Europe, employed mental decimal system.
arithmetic and a system of storing
intermediate results on the fingers as an
aid to memory.
• A second common system was the base-60 • The third system was Indian arithmetic,
numeration inherited from the whose basic numeral forms, complete with
Babylonians via the Greeks and known the zero, eastern Islam took over from
as the arithmetic of the astronomers. the Hindus.
Although astronomers used this system The arithmetic algorithms were completed in two ways:
for their tables, they usually converted by the extension of root-extraction procedures, known to
numbers to the decimal system for Hindus and Greeks only for square and cube roots, to
complicated calculations and then roots of higher degree and by the extension of the
converted the answer back to Hindu decimal system for whole numbers to include
sexagesimals. decimal fractions.
 GEOMETRY: Ibn Sinãn
• Ibrahim ibn Sinan (d. 946) is the grandson of Thabit ibn
Qurra, the famous Mathematician and translator of
Archimedes.
• His treatment of the area of a segment of a parabola is
the simplest construction from the time before the
Renaissance.
• He wrote that he invented the proof out of necessity, to
save his family’s scientific reputation after hearing
accusation that his grandfather’s method was too long-
winded.
• Continued Archimedes investigations of areas and volumes,
MUHAMMAD AL-KARAJI

o INTRODUCED THE THEORY

OF ALGEBRAIC CALCULUS
o HE WAS THE FIRST TO USE
THE METHOD OF PROOF BY
MATHEMATICAL
INDUCTION TO PROVE HIS
RESULTS, BY PROVING THAT
THE FIRST STATEMENT IN
AN INFINITE SEQUENCE OF
STATEMENT IS TRUE, AND
THEN PROVING THAT, IF
ANY ONE STATEMENT IN
THE SEQUENCE IS TRUE,
THEN SO IS THE NEXT ONE.
 Binomial
Theorem
• A binomial is a simple type
of algebraic expression which
has just two terms which are
operated on only by addition,
subtraction, multiplication
and positive whole-number
exponents as (𝑥 + 𝑦)2
• BINOMIAL- is a
mathematical expression with
two terms.
MATHEMATICS IN 11th Century
• Persian Ibn al-Haytham (also known as
Alhazen)
• who, in addition to his groundbreaking work on
optics and physics, established the beginnings of
the link between algebra and geometry, and
devised what is now known as "Alhazen's
problem" (he was the first mathematician to derive
the formula for the sum of the fourth powers,
using a method that is readily generalizable); and
MATHEMATICS IN 13th Century

•Persian Kamal al-Din al-Farisi

•who applied the theory of conic sections
to solve optical problems, as well as
pursuing work in number theory such as
on amicable numbers, factorization and
combinatorial methods;
• Moroccan Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi
• whose works included topics such as
computing square roots and the theory of
continued fractions, as well as the discovery of
the first new pair of amicable numbers since
ancient times (17,296 and 18,416, later re-
discovered by Fermat) and the the first use of
algebraic notation since Brahmagupta.
ISLAMIC ART
• Geometric patterns make up one of the three non figural types of decoration
in Islamic art, which also include calligraphy and vegetal patterns.
• Islamic Art is not the art of a particular country or a particular people. It
is the art of a civilization formed by a combination of historical circumstances;
the conquest of the Ancient World by the Arabs, the inforced unification of a
vast territory under the banner of Islam, a territory which was in turn invaded
by various groups of alien peoples. From the start, the direction of Islamic
Art was largely determined by political structures which cut across
geographical and sociological boundaries.
• The complex nature of Islamic Art developed on the basis of Pre-Islamic
traditions in the various countries conquered, and a closely integrated blend of
Arab, Turkish and Persian traditions brought together in all parts of the new
Muslim/Moslem Empire.
ART PATTERNS