Mathematician:Mathematicians/Sorted By Birth/501 - 1000 CE
For more comprehensive information on the lives and works of mathematicians through the ages, see the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, created by John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson.
- The army of those who have made at least one definite contribution to mathematics as we know it soon becomes a mob as we look back over history; 6,000 or 8,000 names press forward for some word from us to preserve them from oblivion, and once the bolder leaders have been recognised it becomes largely a matter of arbitrary, illogical legislation to judge who of the clamouring multitude shall be permitted to survive and who be condemned to be forgotten.
- -- Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics, 1937, Victor Gollancz, London
$\text {501}$ – $\text {600}$
Metrodorus $($$\text {c. 500}$$)$
Greek grammarian and mathematician, who collected mathematical epigrams which appear in The Greek Anthology Book XIV.
He is believed to have authored nos. $116$ to $146$.
Nothing else is known about him.
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Varahamihira $($$\text {505}$ – $\text {587}$$)$
Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer.
One of several early mathematicians to discover what is now known as Pascal's triangle.
Defined the algebraic properties of zero and negative numbers.
Improved the accuracy of the sine tables of Aryabhata I.
Made some insightful observations in the field of optics.
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Severus Sebokht $($$\text {575}$ – $\text {667}$$)$
Syrian scholar and bishop.
The first Syrian to mention the Indian number system.
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Brahmagupta $($$\text {598}$ – $\text {668}$$)$
Indian mathematician and astronomer.
Gave definitive solutions to the general linear equation, and also the general quadratic equation.
Best known for the Brahmagupta-Fibonacci Identity.
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Bhaskara I $($$\text {c. 600}$ – $\text {c. 680}$$)$
Indian mathematician who was the first on record to use Hindu-Arabic numerals complete with a symbol for zero.
Gave an approximation of the sine function in his Āryabhaṭīyabhāṣya of $629$ CE.
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$\text {601}$ – $\text {700}$
Bede $($$\text {c. 673}$ – $\text {735}$$)$
English Benedictine monk at the monastery of St. Peter and its companion monastery of St. Paul in the Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles.
Studied the academic discipline of computus, that is the science of calculating calendar dates.
Worked on computing the date of Easter.
Helped establish the "Anno Domini" practice of numbering years.
Produced works on finger-counting, the sphere, and division.
These works are probably the first works on mathematics written in England by an Englishman.
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$\text {701}$ – $\text {800}$
Alcuin of York $($$\text {c. 735}$ – $\text {804}$$)$
Hugely influential english scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher.
Wrote elementary texts on arithmetic, geometry and astronomy.
Leader of a renaissance in learning in Europe.
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Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi $($$\text {c. 780}$ – $\text {c. 850}$$)$
Mathematician who lived and worked in Baghdad.
Famous for his book The Algebra, which contained the first systematic description of the solution to linear and quadratic equations.
Sometimes referred to as "the father of algebra", but some claim the title should belong to Diophantus.
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Leon the Mathematician $($$\text {c. 790}$ – $\text {c. 870}$$)$
Archbishop of Thessalonike between $840$ and $843$.
Byzantine sage at the time of the first Byzantine renaissance of letters and the sciences in the $9$th century.
He was born probably in Constantinople where he studied grammar.
He later learnt philosophy, rhetoric, and arithmetic in Andros.
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$\text {801}$ – $\text {900}$
Mahaviracharya $($$\text {c. 800}$ – $\text {c. 870}$$)$
Indian mathematician best known for separating the subject of mathematics from that of astrology.
Gave the sum of a series whose terms are squares of an arithmetical sequence and empirical rules for area and perimeter of an ellipse.
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Al-Kindi $($$\text {c. 801}$ – $\text {c. 873}$$)$
Persian mathematician, philosopher and prolific writer famous for providing a synthesis of the Greek and Hellenistic tradition into the Muslim world.
Played an important role in introducing the Arabic numeral system to the West.
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Qusta ibn Luqa $($$\text {820}$ – $\text {912}$$)$
Syrian Melkite Christian physician, philosopher, astronomer, mathematician and translator.
Known for translating many Greek texts in to Arabic.
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Thabit ibn Qurra $($$\text {836}$ – $\text {901}$$)$
Sabian mathematician, physician, astronomer, and translator who lived in Baghdad in the second half of the ninth century during the time of Abbasid Caliphate.
Made important discoveries in algebra, geometry, and astronomy.
One of the first reformers of the Ptolemaic system in Astronomy.
A founder of the discipline of statics.
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Abu Kamil $($$\text {c. 850}$ – $\text {c. 930}$$)$
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.
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$\text {901}$ – $\text {1000}$
Abu'l-Wafa Al-Buzjani $($$\text {940}$ – $\text {998}$$)$
Persian mathematician and astronomer who made important innovations in spherical trigonometry.
His work on arithmetic for businessmen contains the first instance of using negative numbers in a medieval Islamic text.
Credited with compiling the tables of sines and tangents at $15'$ intervals
Introduced the secant and cosecant functions, and studied the interrelations between the six trigonometric lines associated with an arc.
His Almagest was widely read by medieval Arabic astronomers in the centuries after his death. He is known to have written several other books that have not survived.
Assembled a translation and commentary on the Arithmetica of Diophantus.
Known for his study of geometrical dissections.
Pioneered the technique of geometrical construction using a rusty compass.
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Abu Bakr al-Karaji $($$\text {c. 953}$ – $\text {c. 1029}$$)$
Persian mathematician best known for the Binomial Theorem and what is now known as Pascal's Rule for their combination.
Also one of the first to use the Principle of Mathematical Induction.
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Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham $($$\text {965}$ – $\text {c. 1039}$$)$
Persian philosopher, scientist and all-round genius who made significant contributions to number theory and geometry.
His work influenced the work of René Descartes and the calculus of Isaac Newton.
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Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al-Biruni $($$\text {973}$ – $\text {1048}$$)$
Khwarazmi scholar and polymath.
Thoroughly documented the Indian calendar with relation to the various Islamic calendars of his day.
Appears to be the first to have defined a second (of time) as being $\dfrac 1 {24 \times 60 \times 60}$ of a day.
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Halayudha $($$\text {c. 1000}$$)$
Indian mathematician who wrote the Mṛtasañjīvanī, a commentary on Pingala's Chandah-shastra, containing a clear description of Pascal's triangle (called meru-prastaara).
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