Ibrahim Ibn Sinan
Ibrahim ibn Sinan ibn Thabit ibn Qurra, better known under the name of Ibrahim ibn Sinan, born in 908 in Baghdad and died in 946 in the same city, is a mathematician and astronomer Persian. It is famous for his mathematical work, which brought a new vision of geometry, providing significant developm and inventing new methods. He pursued studies of Archimedes on areas and volumes. He wrote commentaries on the Almagest of Ptolemy. His works are known by the seven treaties and he published his Letter on the description of concepts.
Summary |
His life and work
Ibrahim ibn Sinan, the son of Sinan ibn Thabit ibn Qurra (c. 880 943 ), physician, mathematician and astronomer Persian, son and grandson of Al-Sabi Thabit ibn Qurra al-Harran, known to Thabit ibn Qurra ( 836 18 February 901 ).
Ibrahim ibn Sinan worked on conic sections, studied especially tangent circles, and the apparent motions of the Sun as revealed by the geometry of shadows. When he was just 17 years, Ibrahim looks at different ways of expressing time from the sun. He summarized his work in a treatise in which he analyzes the data known from Ptolemy and explains his own theory about the solar motion. Following his grandfather, Ibrahim formulated a method to draw the curves required by the design of sundials, which will long remain a reference.
The most important work of Ibrahim Ibn Sinan covered the quadrature of the parabola, where he introduced a method of integration more general than that of Archimedes. His grandfather Thabit ibn Qurra had begun to consider integration of a different view from that of the Greek mathematician, but could not fully succeed. His study had been surpassed by that of an Arab mathematician, Al-Mahani. Ibrahim acknowledged the fact (the "Study of Al-Mahani remain more advanced than my grandfather, unless someone in our family could surpass") and undertook to continue the work of his grandfather. His theory on squaring the circle was simpler than that of Archimedes, and will not be surpassed until the discovery of calculus.
In his treatise On the measurement of the parabola, Ibrahim ibn Sinan can prove that the surface of a segment of a parabola is four-thirds the area of a triangle inscribed.
It was one of the Arab mathematicians of the time that concerns over the philosophy of mathematics, and wrote such a treatise on the analysis and synthesis, noting that the surveyors had neglected the contemporary method of Apollonius.
There is no doubt that his premature death - he died at only 38 years - was unable to make the mathematical science a greater contribution than his famous grandfather. It is nevertheless considered, following the words of the historian of mathematics German Professor Fuat Sezgin , as "one of the most important mathematicians of the medieval Islamic world."
Bibliography
Books
- Ibrahim ibn Sinan, Ibrahim ibn Sinan Works, (Arabic) (collected by Ahmad Salim Saidan, published by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, Department Inheritance Arab, Kuwait, 1983).
- Roshdi Rashed, The Mathematics of infinitesimal ninth to eleventh century, London, al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, Vol. I: "Founders and commentators: Banu Musa, Thabit ibn Qurra Ibn Sinan al-Khazin, al-Quhi, Ibn al-Samh, Ibn Hud," 1996, 1125 p
- Rashed and Hlne Bellosta Roshdi Ibrahim Ibn Sinan: Logic and geometry in the tenth century, 809 pages, (Brill, Leiden, May 2000).
- Fuat Sezgin, Einfhrung in die Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften (Introduction to the History of Arab-Islamic Sciences), 232 pp., 2003. ISBN 3-8298-0067-3 (book in German).
Articles
- Hlne Bellosta, "Ibrahim ibn Sinan: an analysis and synthesis", Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1991, vol. I, No. 2, pp. 211-232.
- Hlne Bellosta, "Ibrahim ibn Sinan: a new classification of geometric problems, published in Contra los titanium rutin, S. Garma, D. Flament, V. Navarro eds., Madrid 1994, pp. 19-33, conference proceedings: International Meeting, History of Mathematics (Madrid 18-22 November 1991).
- Hlne Bellosta, "The Arab mathematicians and the problem of Contacts", Oriens-Western, Cahiers du Centre d'Histoire des Sciences and Philosophy Arab and Medieval, No. 1, 1997, pp. 105-122.
- Hlne Bellosta, "Mathematics and Philosophy in the tenth century: the Treaty on the analysis and synthesis of Ibrahim Ibn Sinan, MATAPLI No. 46, April 1996, pp. 17-24.
- Hlne Bellosta, "Ibrahim Ibn Sinan, Apollonius arabicus" in Perspectives on Arab and medieval scientific tradition and Greek philosophical (Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on SIHSPAI, held in Paris in 1993), World Institute Arabe, Paris / Peeters, Leuven / Paris 1997, pp. 31-48.
Theses
- Baylet Helene (Helene Bellosta), "The analysis and synthesis by Ibrahim Ibn Sinan", Thesis in 1994 at the University of Paris 7, 466 pages
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