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    Thabit: Thabit Ibn Qurra Al-Harrani (826 - 901), Also Known by The Spelling Thebit

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    Thabit ibn Qurra was an influential 9th century Arab scholar known for his translations of important Greek mathematical works into Arabic and for his own contributions to mathematics. He produced Arabic versions of works by Euclid, Apollonius, Archimedes, and Ptolemy. Thabit also made his own discoveries, including theories that led to non-Euclidean geometry and integral calculus. He served as court astronomer to the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tadid and made advances in several fields including geometry, number theory, and mechanics.

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    Thabit: Thabit Ibn Qurra Al-Harrani (826 - 901), Also Known by The Spelling Thebit

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    creesha
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    Thabit ibn Qurra was an influential 9th century Arab scholar known for his translations of important Greek mathematical works into Arabic and for his own contributions to mathematics. He produced Arabic versions of works by Euclid, Apollonius, Archimedes, and Ptolemy. Thabit also made his own discoveries, including theories that led to non-Euclidean geometry and integral calculus. He served as court astronomer to the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tadid and made advances in several fields including geometry, number theory, and mechanics.

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    Thabit ibn Qurra was an influential 9th century Arab scholar known for his translations of important Greek mathematical works into Arabic and for his own contributions to mathematics. He produced Arabic versions of works by Euclid, Apollonius, Archimedes, and Ptolemy. Thabit also made his own discoveries, including theories that led to non-Euclidean geometry and integral calculus. He served as court astronomer to the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tadid and made advances in several fields including geometry, number theory, and mechanics.

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    133 views3 pages

    Thabit: Thabit Ibn Qurra Al-Harrani (826 - 901), Also Known by The Spelling Thebit

    Uploaded by

    creesha
    Thabit ibn Qurra was an influential 9th century Arab scholar known for his translations of important Greek mathematical works into Arabic and for his own contributions to mathematics. He produced Arabic versions of works by Euclid, Apollonius, Archimedes, and Ptolemy. Thabit also made his own discoveries, including theories that led to non-Euclidean geometry and integral calculus. He served as court astronomer to the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tadid and made advances in several fields including geometry, number theory, and mechanics.

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    Thabit was an important Arabic scholar who translated many Greek mathematical works into Arabic and made several important contributions to mathematics himself, including extending geometry to algebra and developing concepts in calculus and non-Euclidean geometry.

    Thabit proposed important improvements to some of Euclid's theorems, applied arithmetic terminology to geometry, studied conic sections like parabolas and ellipses, and helped develop integral calculus through computations of surface areas and volumes. He also made contributions to number theory and proved the Pythagorean theorem.

    Thabit and his grandson Ibrahim ibn Sinan studied the curves needed for making sundials.

    Thabit

    Thabit ibn Qurra al-Harrani (826 901), also known by the spelling Thebit
    in the West, is considered the Arabic counterpoint of Pappus. He was a
    commentator on higher mathematics and one of the most brilliant and
    accomplished Arab scholars. He produced translations into Arabic of many
    important Greek works, including those of Euclid, Apollonius, Archimedes, and Ptolemy. Had it not
    been for his efforts, the number of existing Greek mathematical works would be significantly and sadly
    fewer. He revised many of the translated Greek works and was one of the first reformers of Ptolemys
    system. In his book on mechanics, Kitab fil-garastun (The book on the beam balance), he discussed
    and proved the principles of levers in equilibrium by using a center of mass method in describing the
    loads. His observations of the apparent motion of the Sun and Moon across the sky led him to the
    conjecture that the Suns motion contained an undiscovered element that affected the ecliptic, the
    apparent path of the Sun relative to the stars. He was a pioneer in extending the concept of traditional
    geometry to geometrical algebra. He proposed theories that led to the development of non-Euclidean
    geometry, spherical trigonometry, integral calculus, and real numbers.

    Born in Harran in northern Mesopotamia (now in Turkey), Thabit was a member of the star
    worshipping Sabian sect. He came from a wealthy and prominent family, and inherited a large family
    fortune. Because of his impressive command of languages he was persuaded by the great Muslim
    mathematician Muhammad Ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi to go Baghdad to study mathematics and
    medicine, a combination that was quite common for scholars of the time. Wishing to make use of
    Thabits great skills in language and mathematics to translate Greek works, the Abbasid Caliph al-

    Mutadid appointed him court astronomer. Thabit was not only an important translator; he made many
    important mathematical discoveries. He proposed important improvements in some of Euclids
    theorems. He applied arithmetical terminology to geometric quantities and studied several aspects of
    conic sections, notably those of the parabola and ellipse. With his computations designed to determine
    the surface areas and volumes of certain solids Thabit helped develop an early form of integral
    calculus. He made important contributions to number theory, in particular with amicable numbers.

    Thabit gave a nice proof of the Pythagorean theorem. He begins with a right triangle ABC, with A the
    right angle [Figure 9.13]. Next a square is constructed on the hypotenuse CB, and the original triangle
    ABC is translated along this square to obtain a congruent triangle HKG inside the square, so that its
    hypotenuse GK is the other side of the square. Draw perpendiculars KE and GF from the points K and
    G to the line AC. Draw a line DB to complete the square ABDE, which is on the leg AC of the original
    triangle. In addition, the square EFGH has side GH that equals AC, so EFGH equals a square on the leg
    AC. What remains to be shown is that the square BCGK is equal to the sum of the squares ABDE and
    EFGH, which can be accomplished by a mathematical equivalent process to cutting and pasting.
    Beginning with square EFGH, translate the triangle HKG back across the square to triangle ABC and
    translate the triangle BDK across the square to the congruent triangle FCG. Pasting the pieces together,
    one sees that the squares ABDE and EFGH are completely covered with no overlap. Thus, as required,
    = + . Like Pappus, Thabit generalized the Pythagorean Theorem to arbitrary triangles.

    Figure 9.13

    Thabit also wrote on philosophy, logic, psychology, ethics, and the classification of sciences,
    languages, politics, religion and the customs of the Sabians. In philosophy, his concept of number is
    similar to that of Plato, in that he believes that numbers exist, whether someone knows them or not, but
    he disagreed with the theories of Plato and Aristotle regarding motion. Thabit and his grandson Ibrahim
    ibn Sinan studied the curves needed for making sundials. After a long career of scholarship, Thabit died
    at Baghdad in 901. A large number of his books in mathematics, astronomy and medicine survived.
    During the Middle Ages, Gerard of Cremona translated some of Thabits books into Latin.

    Quotation of the Day: The work and responsibility of preserving the great achievements of the
    Greeks and making further contributions to the sciences and mathematics was carried out by the Arabs,
    who welcomed scholars of all nationalities into their society. Calvin C. Clawson

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