Geometry
The
greatest scientific contribution Muslims made to
the world is the creation of mathmatical science.
Algebra, geometry, algorithm and arithmetic are
at the heart of every scientific and social aspect
of life.
There
is hardly a single device, business entity, industry,
architecture built without the Arabic numerals,
the decimal point, the sign and cosine, the ruler
and the compass, all of which are Islamic inventions.
Many
of the intellectual sciences Muslims developed were
a direct result of the Qur'anic inspirations and
of their need to fulfill the rituals and duties
of worship.
The
Islamic duty of Zakah or alms giving, and the distribution
of properties in the will are are examples of the
duties laid the foundation of geometry and arithmetic.
A
Muslim is to give annually in charity and in taxation
detailed amounts of currency and/or crops. Figuring
out the exact distribution of Zakah and property
distrbution of the well do not come without complicated
math. Each commodity requires precise scaling and
percentage.
For
example, for an acre of an irregular piece of land
is to be split among a family of two boys and two
girls with the male share twice as that of the girl,
a complicated formula and exact geometry of the
land must take place before this duty is accomplished.
Thus, mathematics and geometry came to existence.
The
prominent historian, De Vaux , in his book, "The
Philosophers of Islam" said:
"they (the Muslims) were indisputably the founders
of plane and spherical geometry."
He
further stated: "By
using ciphers, (Arabic for zero) the Arabs became
the founders of the arithmetic of everyday life;
they made algebra an exact science. The Arabs kept
alive higher intellectual life and the study of
science in a period when the Christian West was
fighting desperately with barbarism."
According
to Gerard De Vaucouleurs, in his book, Discovery
of the Universe, Page 35. Al Battani, (939-998)
was a great astronomer and Mathematician. He published
an original Almagest and developed the science of
trigonometry and discovered the inequality in the
moon's motion known as the variation.
Arabic
Study of
Geometric Elements
of Euclid
Gerard De Vaucouleurs, further said:
"Abattani made new observations for the Sun's
position improved the value of the tropical year,
rectified Ptolemy's precession constant and measured
the obliquity of the elliptic with care.
He introduced the sine into trigonometry."
Albattani
composed a work on astronomy, with tables, containing
his own observations of the sun and moon and a more
accurate description of their motions than that
given in Ptolemy's "Almagest".
In
it moreover, he gives the motions of the five planets,
with the improved observations he succeeded in making,
as well as other necessary astronomical calculations.
Some of his observations mentioned in his book of
tables were made in the year 880 and later on in
the year 900.
Nobody
is known in Islam who reached similar perfection
in observing the stars and scrutinizing their motions.
al-Haytham
al-Haytham
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