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Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (1999)

www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk

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Re: Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (1999)

#41

Post by csomar »

zwaps wrote: post #9
yters wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Islam is largely Arabic, but is it the case that things attributed to Arabia are mostly Islamic?

Not at all, the Koran is written in the context of Arabia at the time. This is not a matter of interpretation, the book itself references local customs and laws. Therefore, our understanding, the practice and everything else in Islam is crucially shaped by the society in Arabia, and the change it brought to it. I think it is best read and understood in terms of the Delta - the change - it meant to convey (but that is…

> the Muslisms who rely primarily on the book alone, are much more progressive than the ones also relying on the traditions.

As an ex-Muslim, the way I see it is: If you were to rely primarily/only on the Koran, it is because you want to justify and legitimate your own agenda. The Koran is very flexible and can be either very progressive or very conservative, strict and violent.

So you make your pick and then find the particular "bayt" that supports your claims :)

Re: Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (1999)

#42

Post by kragen »

wozniacki wrote: post #21
alpha0mega wrote: post #6

Most of it was based on translated works from Indian, Europeans conveniently (or out of ignorance) forget that.

I've heard of this before. Could you elaborate on those translated works? Perhaps cite some works that were of well known Indian origin?

The Aryabhatiya, which contains the first known instance of the algorithm we use today for finding multiplicative inverses in Galois fields, is one well-known example. (Of course Aryabhata didn't know it could be used for that.) The Surya Siddhantha, from which we derive the word "sine", is another example. I recommend reading https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics

Re: Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (1999)

#43

Post by Symmetry »

zwaps wrote: post #4

Let's not forget that the Islamic world was key (though not alone) in preserving our scientific and cultural knowledge. At that time, Islamic society was quite modern and tolerant - and even often the destination for persecuted religious groups such as the Jews in Spain. It is absolutely clear that modern Islam is, in fact, much more "conservative" than it used to be in the beginning. Indeed, the very beginning of Is…

It's really interesting reading Al-Khwarizmi writing back and forth with Ibn Sina speculating about life on other planets and whether they might have been visited by prophets too.

Much, though not all, of the big scientific work in the Islamic world was in Iran and central Asia. But eventually enlightenment led to counter enlightenment and the rise of Gnosticism and mysticism. Then the Mongols rode in and killed everyone. They were normally good about capturing cities in an economically useful state, especially if they surrendered, but Ala ad-Din Muhammad II really pissed of Genghis Khan who was mostly busy with China at the time and couldn't spare the troops for a conquest, just an invasion. So they killed everyone in the cities except a few hundred they shipped back to Mongolia. Then came back a few weeks later and killed any survivors who had come out of hiding. And central Asia went from a trade nexus with possibly the largest cities in the world to the state we know it in today.

Re: Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (1999)

#45

Post by et-al »

csomar wrote: post #32
namirez wrote: post #10

Title is slightly misleading! Most of them are Islamic but not Arabic. Khawrazmi [1], Karaji [2], Khayyam [3], and Tusi [4] were all Persian. Ibn Haytham wrote only in Arabic though. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Karaji [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharaf_al-D%C4%ABn_al-%E1%B9%A...

Arab refers to the people living in the Arabic world. If you were to bind it by an ethnicity, most of the people living in the Arab world "Today" would not be Arabs. From Wikipedia: Arabs are a population inhabiting the Arab world.

namirez's point is that the historical people mentioned are Persians being called Arabs. And there are Persians that would take offense to this association.

Re: Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (1999)

#46

Post by emilsedgh »

nobrains wrote: post #11

Many Islamic (not just Arab. Also Persian and others) scholars were on the right track about identifying evolution, and far from the evolution denying general populace today. See the short "history" section in this article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_views_on_evolution

Wow, I had no idea! "[they] were on the right track" is an understatement.

... on what he referred to as the "gradual process of creation." He stated that the Earth began with abiotic components such as "minerals." Slowly, primitive stages of plants such as "herbs and seedless plants" developed and eventually "palms and vines." Khaldun connects the later stages of plant development to the first stages of animal development. Finally, he claims that the greater thought capabilities of human beings was "reached from the world of the monkeys."

Re: Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (1999)

#47

Post by nwallin »

csomar wrote: post #32
namirez wrote: post #10

Title is slightly misleading! Most of them are Islamic but not Arabic. Khawrazmi [1], Karaji [2], Khayyam [3], and Tusi [4] were all Persian. Ibn Haytham wrote only in Arabic though. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Karaji [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharaf_al-D%C4%ABn_al-%E1%B9%A...

Arab refers to the people living in the Arabic world. If you were to bind it by an ethnicity, most of the people living in the Arab world "Today" would not be Arabs. From Wikipedia: Arabs are a population inhabiting the Arab world.

> From Wikipedia: Arabs are a population inhabiting the Arab world.

Also from Wikipedia: Persia, present day Iran, is not part of the Arab world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world

Re: Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (1999)

#49

Post by romwell »

namirez wrote: post #10

Title is slightly misleading! Most of them are Islamic but not Arabic. Khawrazmi [1], Karaji [2], Khayyam [3], and Tusi [4] were all Persian. Ibn Haytham wrote only in Arabic though. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Karaji [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharaf_al-D%C4%ABn_al-%E1%B9%A...

The article talks about that:

>Nor were all these mathematicians Arabs, but for convenience we will call our topic "Arab mathematics".

>The regions from which the "Arab mathematicians" came was centred on Iran/Iraq but varied with military conquest during the period. At its greatest extent it stretched to the west through Turkey and North Africa to include most of Spain, and to the east as far as the borders of China.

Re: Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (1999)

#50

Post by systems »

namirez wrote: post #10

Title is slightly misleading! Most of them are Islamic but not Arabic. Khawrazmi [1], Karaji [2], Khayyam [3], and Tusi [4] were all Persian. Ibn Haytham wrote only in Arabic though. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Karaji [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharaf_al-D%C4%ABn_al-%E1%B9%A...

Did they write their mathematics books in Persian, or Arabic? If they wrote their books in Arabic, living in Arabic land They are Arabic scientist

If a Russian, scientist, lived and studied in USA, to which country would you attribute his work or achievements, Russia or USA

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