Ibn al-Banna al-Marrākushī

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Ibn al-Banna al-Marrākuschī ( Arabic ابن البناء المراكشي, DMG Ibn al-Bannāʾ al-Marrākušī ; * December 29, 1256 in Marrakech ; † July 31, 1321 ), also Abu Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi /أبو أحمد بن محمد بن عثمان الأزدي/ Abū Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿUṯmān al-Azdī , was a Moroccan mathematician and astronomer.

Sometimes he is also quoted as Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi.

There is also the presumption that he was born in Granada and moved from there to Morocco. The Marinids tribe, who conquered Morocco in the mid-13th century, supported the Umayyads who ruled Spain. It is possible that he was an astrologer for the Marinid Sultan Abū Saʿīd (ruled 1309 to 1331) and is said to have predicted the circumstances of his death.

Al-Banna received a thorough mathematical education and taught mathematics and astronomy in Fez in the madrasa and in his private home. There is a biography that a student made of one of his students so that his teachers and students are known. One of his teachers was the mystic al-Hazmiri (died 1279).

A whole series of works by him are known - a total of 80 to 100, the most important of which are:

  • Talkhis amal al-hisab (summary of arithmetic operations),تلخيص عمل الحساب/ talḫīṣ ʿamal al-ḥisāb , which summarize the otherwise lost work of the mathematician al-Hassar (12th or 13th century) with the commentary by Al-Banna. They contain continued fractions , among other things for the calculation of square roots. It also contains two formulas for sums of a finite set of increasing square and cube numbers (similar to As-Samaw'al before ) and formulas for binomial coefficients (and thus early work on combinatorics ).
  • The Minhaj was used for the practical, greatly simplified calculation of astronomical ephemeris (planets, moon). They are based on tablets by Ibn Ishaq al-Tunisi from 1222. There were at least three commentaries and it was still in use in the Maghreb in the 19th century . Al-Banna also wrote an even more condensed and simplified version (Al-Yasara) and an even shorter version of it.

He also wrote a letter on the astrolabe (describing two types), the pre-Islamic Arabic calendar, the calculation of time (apparently for theological use by imams), the use of geometry in land surveying, and an introduction to Eudklid's elements . As an astronomer he was in the tradition of the Andalusian astronomer az-Zarqali . He also wrote theological and legal works. He is said to have been a Sufi .

He seems to have been the first to use the word almanac (the original Arabic word al-manakh stands for weather). He also plays a role in the history of the Friend Numbers .

The moon crater Al-Marrakushi was named in his honor in 1976 .

literature

  • HPJ Renaud: Sur les dates de la vie du mathématicien arabe marocain Ibn al-Bannā, Isis, Volume 27, 1937, pp. 216-218.
  • HPJ Renaud: Ibn al ‐ Bannāʾ de Marrakech, Sûfî et mathématicien (XIIIe - XIVe see JC), Hespéris, Volume 25, 1938, pp. 13–42.
  • Muhammad Suwaysī: Ibn al-Bannāʾ, Talkhīṣ aʿmāl al-ḥisāb. Tunis 1969 (edition of Talkhis with translation and commentary)
  • Juan Vernet : Ibn al-Banna Al-Marrakushi, Dictionary of Scientific Biography , 1970, Volume 1, pp. 437f
  • Juan Vernet: Contribución al estudio de la labor astronómica de Ibn al-Bannā, Tetouan 1952.
  • David King: On the History of Astronomy in the Medieval Maghrib, in: Dine Alaoui (Ed.), Études philosophiques et sociologiques dédiées à Jamal, pp. 27-61. Fez 1998.
  • Julio Samsó : An Outline of the History of Maghribī Zijes from the End of the Thirteenth Century, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 29, 1998, pp. 93-102.
  • Julio Samsó, Eduardo Millás: Ibn al-Bannāʾ, Ibn Isḥāq and Ibn al ‐ Zarqālluh's Solar Theory, in: Samso (ed.), Islamic Astronomy and Medieval Spain, Aldershot: Variorum 1994.
  • Julio Samsó: The Computation of Planetary Longitudes in the Zīj of Ibn al-Bannā, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Volume 8 1998, pp. 259-286.
  • Julio Samsó: Ibn al-Bannāʾ: Abū al ‐ ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Azdī al-Marrākushī, in: Thomas Hockey (ed.), The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer, 2007, pp. 551–552
  • Ahmed Djebbar, Muḥammad Aballāgh: Ḥayāt wa-muʾallafāt Ibn al-Bannāʾ al-Murrākushī [sic] maʿa nuṣūṣ ghayr manshūra, Rabat 2001 (bio-bibliography).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Samso Ibn al-Bannāʾ: Abū al ‐ ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Azdī al-Marrākushī , in: Thomas Hockey (ed.), The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer, 2007, pp. 551-552. There the date of birth is December 29 or 30, in Vernet in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography it is December 29 and only the year of death 1321.
  2. ^ Vernet in Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  3. ^ Vernet, Dict. Sci. Biogr.
  4. ↑ Renaud still listed 82
  5. ↑ Al-Marrakushi
personal data
SURNAME Ibn al-Banna al-Marrākushī
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Arab mathematician, scholar and astronomer
BIRTH DATE December 29, 1256
PLACE OF BIRTH Marrakech
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 1321
PLACE OF DEATH Marrakech