The Role of Muslims in the Formation and Development of Sciences (Part 24)
The Role of Islamic Scholars in Mathematics
Mathematics has been one of the most important branches of knowledge evaluated and examined by nations throughout history. This science has held great value and significance in human civilization, serving as the foundation for educational systems across time. Given its position, the theory and perspective on this science have remained unchanged in both ancient and modern civilizations; it continues to be one of the fundamental and essential sciences.
Islamic scholars also recognized the impact that mathematics has had on the past, present, and future of nations. They understood that this science is not limited to arithmetic, accounting, or trade, but plays a crucial role in the study of other fields such as astronomy, physics, architecture, geometry, alchemy, and more. As a result, they made considerable efforts to learn and understand these sciences.
The Approach of Islamic Scholars to Mathematics
Islamic scholars had two distinct approaches to mathematics:
1. The “comprehensive” approach, which examined the entire field of mathematics holistically. Through this, they discovered numerous innovations that others had not reached.
2. The “applied” approach, in which mathematics was utilized in various fields such as astronomy, mechanics, geometry, architecture, accounting, business practices, and more.
These two approaches indicate that Islamic scholars evaluated mathematics in a specific and unique way, acknowledging its essential role. Mathematics was transmitted to Islamic scholars from two main sources: arithmetic and algebra, and geometry.
Al-Kindi, a prominent philosopher, was deeply engaged with mathematics and believed that philosophy could not be understood without mathematics. He argued that mathematics would always be based on proof and reason, not on personal satisfaction or assumptions. (1)
The Advancement of Arabic Numerals
In ancient times, humans did not have the numbers necessary for calculation and relied on expressions such as “few” or “many” to measure quantities. They did not know large numbers like twenty, thirty, and so on; they only knew the numbers “one” and “two,” and anything larger was referred to as “many” or “plenty.” The Semites used the letters of the “Abjad” system for arithmetic, and numbers were assigned based on these letters. This method was common during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), where, for example, “A” stood for one, “B” for two, and so on. (2)
In the Quran, we also find references to numbers in words. For example, regarding the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Abu Bakr, it is mentioned: “Thani athnayni,” meaning “the second of two.”(3) Additionally, it says, “If you ask forgiveness for them seventy times.” (4)
Concerning the time Prophet Noah stayed among his people, it states, “He remained among them a thousand years, except fifty years.” (5) These examples indicate that Allah mentioned numbers through words rather than digits.
This method of number representation continued for a long time until the introduction of Indian numerals by the astronomer Sheikh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari al-Kufi, which paved the way for the great scholar Sheikh Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. He wrote a book on this subject, and gradually, these numerals replaced the Abjad letters and word-based calculations.
These numbers are known as “Hindu numerals” because this system was well-known among the Hindus, and Muslims adopted the writing method from them. However, these numerals, referred to as “ghabari numerals,” are an invention of the Muslims themselves, and others had no role in their creation.
In fact, these numerals and their system were introduced to European countries through Muslims, where they became known as “Arabic numerals.” Muslims assigned an angle to each number, which helped identify each one. For example, the number one had one angle, the number two had two angles, and so on.
These numerals went through several stages in history and saw various modifications in their usage. Initially, Europeans avoided using Arabic numerals due to their bias against Islam. However, later, they replaced the commonly used Roman and Greek numerals with these Arabic numerals. (6)
Muslims and the Invention of Zero
The Arabs were aware of zero from the beginning, as evidenced by the words of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who said, “Indeed, your Lord is shy and generous. He is shy to return the hands of His servant empty when they are raised towards the sky.” (7)
Some historians believe that the concept of zero was an innovation of the Babylonians and was passed on to the Greeks. However, it is undeniable that Islamic scholars were the ones who expanded and structured the concept of zero, introducing it as “the empty place of anything.” In reality, zero was one of the greatest inventions of humankind because it greatly alters numbers.
Muslims developed zero and represented it by a circle with a center point. For the first time, Muslims used the number zero in their writings before the Indians, as they utilized it in 259 AH (873 CE), while the Indians used it in 265 AH (879 CE). While the invention of zero may have originated with the Indians, it was the Muslims who recognized its value and began using it. (8)
Muslims and the Development of Decimal and Fractional Systems
Initially, the concept of fractions and decimals was used by Indian scholars, but they wrote them without a separator between the numerator and the denominator. When an integer was combined with the fraction, they wrote the integer above the fraction. However, the great scholar Abu al-Abbas Ahmad al-Zaydi, known as Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakshi, was the first to organize fractions and decimals, adding a separator between the numerator and denominator, and placing the integer next to the fractional numbers. He was a prominent scholar of arithmetic and wrote an extensive book on this subject called Al-Hisar al-Saghir, which discussed number theory, and his method is still in use today. (9)
It is also widely accepted that Islamic scholars were the first to invent “decimal fractions.” While Euclid was the first to establish this theory, Western scholars have unjustly attributed the invention to the Western thinker Simon Stevin (993 CE), even though he lived several centuries after Euclid and Ghiyas al-Din Jamshid Kashani.
Jamshid Kashani was one of the great Islamic scholars who contributed significantly to the field of mathematics, arithmetic, algebra, and numbers. (10)
