Ibn Yahyā al-Maghribī al-Samaw'al
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Ibn Yaḥyā al-Maghribī al-Samawʾal السموأل بن يحيى المغربي، also known as Samau'al al-Maghribi (c. 1130 in Baghdad, Iraq – c. 1180 in Maragha, Iran) was a Muslim mathematician and astronomer of Jewish descent.[1] Though born to a Jewish family, he converted to Islam in 1163 after he had a dream telling him to do so [2] His father was a Jewish Rabbi from Morocco.[3]
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[edit] Mathematics
Al-Samaw'al wrote the mathematical treatise al-Bahir fi'l-jabr, meaning "The brilliant in algebra", at the young age of nineteen.
He also developed the concept of proof by mathematical induction, which he used to extend the proof of the binomial theorem and Pascal's triangle previously given by al-Karaji. Al-Samaw'al's inductive argument was only a short step from the full inductive proof of the general binomial theorem.[4]
[edit] Polemics
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He also wrote the famous polemic book debating Judaism known as Silencing the Jews (Refutation of the Jews) or in Spanish Epistola Samuelis Maroccani and later known in English as The blessed Jew of Morocco.[5][6]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ [1]
- ^ Medieval Cultures in Contact, By Richard Gyug, pg. 123
- ^ Katz (1998), p. 259:
"Like the proofs of al-Karaji and ibn al-Haytham, al-Samaw'aldfbsebfiebfsdfuysefbuwfvusyefgvuywevfusevf's argument contains the two basic components of an inductive proof. He begins with a value for which the result is known, here n = 2, and then uses the result for a given integer to derive the result for the next. Although al-Samaw'al did not have any way of stating, and therefore proving, the general binomial theorem, to modern readers there is only a short step from al-Samaw'al's argument to a full inductive proof of the binomial theorem."
- ^ Samau'al al-Maghribi Ifham Al-Yahud: Silencing the Jews / placeholder for Arabic language transliteration, by Moshe Perlmann
- ^ Samau'al al-Maghribi: Ifham Al-Yahud: Silencing the Jews / placeholder for Arabic language transliteration by Moshe Perlmann, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 32, Samau'al Al-Maghribi Ifham Al-Yahud: Silencing the Jews (1964)
[edit] References
- Anouba, A. (1970–80). "Samawʾal, Ibn Yaḥyā al-Maghribī al-". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0684101149.
- O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Ibn Yahya al-Maghribi Al-Samawal", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Samawal.html.
- Samau'al al-Maghribi: Ifham Al-Yahud: Silencing the Jews / placeholder for Arabic language transliteration by Moshe Perlmann, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 32, Samau'al Al-Maghribi Ifham Al-Yahud: Silencing the Jews (1964)
- Samaw'al al-Maghribi: Ifham al-yahud, The early recension, by مغربي، السموءل بن يحي، d. ca. 1174. al-Samawʼal ibn Yaḥyá Maghribī; Ibrahim Marazka; Reza Pourjavady; Sabine Schmidtke Publisher: Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 2006.OCLC: 63514265
- Perlmann, Moshe, "Eleventh-Century Andalusian Authors on the Jews of Granada" Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 18 (1948–49):269-90.
[edit] External links
- Al-Bahir en Algebre d'As-Samaw'al translation by Salah Ahmad, Roshdi Rashed, Author(s) of Review: David A. King, Isis, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Jun., 1976), pp. 307-308
- Al-Asturlabi and as-Samaw'al on Scientific Progress, Osiris, Vol. 9, 1950 (1950), by Franz Rosenthal, pp. 555-566
- Arab Mathematics
