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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