Ibn al-Banna' al-Marrakushi

Ibn al‐Bannāʾ al‐Marrākushī al-Azdi, also known as Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi (Arabic: ابن البنّاء‎‎) (29 December 1256 – c. 1321), was a Moroccan mathematician, astronomer, Islamic scholar, Sufi, and a one-time astrologer.

Biography

Ibn al-Banna' (lit. the son of the architect) was born in Marrakesh in 1256; he is named al‐Marrākushī after that city.^[1] Having learned basic mathematical and geometrical skills, he translated Euclid's Elements into Arabic.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Works

Ibn al-Banna' wrote between 51 and 74 treatises, encompassing such varied topics as Algebra, Astronomy, Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Logic. One of his works, called Talkhīṣ ʿamal al-ḥisāb (Arabic, تلخيص عمل الحساب ) (Summary of arithmetical operations), includes topics such as fractions, sums of squares and cubes etc. Another, called Tanbīh al-Albāb,^[6] covers topics related to:

• calculations regarding the drop in irrigation canal levels,
• arithmetical explanation of the Muslim laws of inheritance
• determination of the hour of the Asr prayer,
• explanation of frauds linked to instruments of measurement,
• enumeration of delayed prayers which have to be said in a precise order, and
• calculation of legal tax in the case of a delayed payment

He also wrote Rafʿ al-Ḥijāb (Lifting the Veil) which covered topics such as computing square roots of a number and the theory of continued fractions.^[1] This was the first mathematical work since Brahmagupta to use an algebraic notation, further developed by Abū al-Hasan ibn Alī al-Qalasādī two centuries later.^[7]

Legacy

The crater Al-Marrakushi on the Moon is named after him.

See also

• List of Arab scientists and scholars
• Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Gazi

References

External links

• The Filāḥa Texts Project: Ibn al-Bannā’

Mathematics in medieval Islam
Mathematicians (Works)	9th century 'Abd al-Hamīd ibn Turk Sind ibn Ali Al-Abbās ibn Said al-Jawharī Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar Al-Kindi De Gradibus Al-Mahani Banū Mūsā Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Khwārizmī The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing ibn Qurra Na'im ibn Musa Sahl ibn Bishr Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi 10th century Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi Book of Fixed Stars al-Būzjānī Abū Ja'far al-Khāzin Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ ibn Aslam Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi Abu-Mahmud Khojandi Ahmad ibn Yusuf Al-Nayrizi Al-Saghani Brethren of Purity Ibn Sahl Ibn Yunus Ibrahim ibn Sinan Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī Sinan ibn Thabit Al-Isfahani Nazif ibn Yumn Abū Sahl al-Qūhī 11th century Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī Abu Nasr Mansur Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī Ibn al-Haytham / Alhazen Book of Optics Ibn Muʿādh al-Jayyānī Al-Karaji Al-Sijzi Alī ibn Ahmad al-Nasawī Avicenna The Book of Healing Ibn Tahir al-Baghdadi Kushyar ibn Labban Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud 12th century Al-Khazini Ibn Yahyā al-Maghribī al-Samaw'al Omar Khayyám Jabir ibn Aflah Abu Bakr al-Hassar 13th century Muhyi al-Dīn al-Maghribī Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī Zij-i Ilkhani Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī Ibn al‐Ha'im al‐Ishbili Ibn Abi al-Shukr 14th century Yaʿīsh ibn Ibrāhīm al-Umawī Ibn al-Banna' al-Marrakushi Ibn al-Shatir Kamāl al-Dīn Fārisī Al-Khalili Qotb al-Din Shirazi Ahmad al-Qalqashandi 15th century Abū al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Qalaṣādī Ali Qushji Jamshīd al-Kāshī Qāḍī Zāda al-Rūmī Ulugh Beg Ibn al-Majdi 16th century Al-Birjandi Muhammad Baqir Yazdi Taqi al-Din Ibn Hamza al-Maghribi Ibn Ghazi al-Miknasi
Other treatises	Almanac Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity Tables of Toledo Tabula Rogeriana Zij Zij-i-Sultani
Concepts	Alhazen's problem Islamic geometric patterns
Centers	Al-Azhar University Al-Mustansiriya University House of Knowledge House of Wisdom Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din Madrasah Maktab Maragheh observatory University of Al-Karaouine
Influences	Babylonian mathematics Greek mathematics Indian mathematics
Influenced	Byzantine mathematics European mathematics Indian mathematics