Mathematician:Abu Kamil

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Mathematician

Egyptian mathematician during the Islamic Golden Age.

Considered the first mathematician to systematically use and accept irrational numbers as solutions and coefficients to equations.

His mathematical techniques were later adopted by Fibonacci, thus allowing Abu Kamil an important part in introducing algebra to Europe.


Nationality

Egyptian


History

  • Born: c. 850
  • Died: c. 930


Publications

  • Kitāb fī al-jabr wa al-muqābala (Book of Algebra)
  • Kitāb al-mukhammas wa'al-mu'ashshar (On the Pentagon and Decagon)
  • Kitāb al-misāḥa wa al-handasa (On Measurement and Geometry)


Lost works

Some of Abu Kamil's lost works include:

  • Kitāb al-khaṭaʾayn (Book of the Two Errors), a treatise on the use of double false position
  • Kitāb al-jamʿ wa al-tafrīq (Book on Augmentation and Diminution) which gained more attention after historian Franz Woepcke linked it with an anonymous Latin work, Liber augmenti et diminutionis
  • Kitāb al-waṣāyā bi al-jabr wa al-muqābala (Book of Estate Sharing using Algebra), which contains algebraic solutions for problems of Islamic inheritance and discusses the opinions of known jurists


Also known as

Full name: Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ ibn Aslam ibn Muḥammad Ibn Shujāʿ
Latinized: Auoquamel
Arabic: أبو كامل شجاع بن أسلم بن محمد بن شجاع‎
Also known as al-ḥāsib al-miṣrī ("the Egyptian reckoner")


Sources