Ibn al‐Bannāʾ al‐Marrākushī ( ar, ابن البناء المراكشي), full name: Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi al-Marrakushi () (29 December 1256 – 31 July 1321), was a Moroccan polymath who was active as a
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
,
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
,
Islamic scholar
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
,
Sufi and
astrologer.
Biography
Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman was born in the ''Qa'at Ibn Nahid'' Quarter of Marrakesh on 29 or 30 December 1256. His ''
nisba
The Arabic language, Arabic word nisba (; also transcribed as ''nisbah'' or ''nisbat'') may refer to:
* Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba, Nisba, a suffix used to form adjectives in Arabic grammar, or the adjective resulting from this formation
**c ...
'' al-Marrakushi is in relation to his birth and death in his hometown Marrakesh. His father was a mason thus the ''
kunya'' Ibn al-Banna' (lit. the son of the mason).
Ibn al-Banna' studied a variety of subjects under at least 17 masters: Quran under the ''
Qari's'' Muhammad ibn al-bashir and shaykh al-Ahdab. ''
ʻilm al-ḥadīth'' under ''qadi al-Jama'a'' (chief judge) of Fez َAbu al-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Ahmad ibn Hakam al-Tujibi, Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Jazuli and Abu abd allah ibn. ''
Fiqh
''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh.
The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and ...
and
Usul al-Fiqh
Principles of Islamic jurisprudence, also known as ''uṣūl al-fiqh'' ( ar, أصول الفقه, lit. roots of fiqh), are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (''fiqh'') for deriving the rulings of Islamic law (''s ...
'' under Abu Imran Musa ibn Abi Ali az-Zanati al-Marrakushi and Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Maghili who taugh him al-Juwayni's ''
Kitab al-Irsahd''. He also studied Arabic grammar under Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Abd as-Salam as-Sanhaji and Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Yahya as-sharif al-marrakushi who also taugh him
Euclid’s ''Elements''. ''
ʿArūḍ'' and ''
ʿilm al-farāʾiḍ'' under Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Idris ibn Malik al-Quda'i al-Qallusi. Arithmetic under Muhammad ibn Ali, known as Ibn Ḥajala. Ibn al-Banna' also studied astronomy under Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Makhluf as-Sijilmassi. He also studied medecine under al-Mirrīkh.
He is known to have attached himself to the founder of the Hazmiriyya ''zawiya'' and sufi saint of
Aghmat, Abu Zayd Abd al-Rahman al-Hazmiri, who guided his arithmetic skills toward divinational predictions.
Ibn al-Banna' taught classes in Marrakesh and some of his students were: Abd al-Aziz ibn Ali al-Hawari al-Misrati (d.1344), Abd al-Rahman ibn Sulayman al-laja'i (d. 1369) and Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Abli (d. 1356).
He died at Marrakesh on 31 July 1321.
Works
Ibn al-Banna' wrote over 100 works encompassing such varied topics as Astronomy, Astrology, the division of inheritances, Linguistics, Logic, Mathematics, Meteorology, Rhetoric, ''
Tafsir
Tafsir ( ar, تفسير, tafsīr ) refers to exegesis, usually of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' ( ar, مُفسّر; plural: ar, مفسّرون, mufassirūn). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, in ...
'', ''Usūl al-Dīn'' and ''
Usul al-Fiqh
Principles of Islamic jurisprudence, also known as ''uṣūl al-fiqh'' ( ar, أصول الفقه, lit. roots of fiqh), are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (''fiqh'') for deriving the rulings of Islamic law (''s ...
''. One of his works, called ''Talkhīṣ ʿamal al-ḥisāb'' ( ar, تلخيص أعمال الحساب) (Summary of arithmetical operations), includes topics such as fractions and sums of squares and cubes. Another, called ''Tanbīh al-Albāb'',
[A Djebbar: Mathematics in medieval Maghreb; AMUCHMA-Newsletter 15; Universidade Pedagógico (UP), Maputo (Mozambique), 15.9.1995.] covers topics related to:
* calculations regarding the drop in irrigation canal levels,
* arithmetical explanation of the
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
laws of inheritance
* determination of the hour of the
Asr
The Asr prayer ( ar, صلاة العصر ', "afternoon prayer") is one of the five mandatory salah (Islamic prayer). As an Islamic day starts at sunset, the Asr prayer is technically the fifth prayer of the day. If counted from midnight, it is ...
prayer,
* explanation of frauds linked to instruments of measurement,
* enumeration of delayed prayers which have to be said in a precise order, and
* calculation of legal tax in the case of a delayed payment
He also wrote an introduction to
Euclid's Elements
The ''Elements'' ( grc, Στοιχεῖα ''Stoikheîa'') is a mathematical treatise consisting of 13 books attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postulat ...
.
He also wrote ''Rafʿ al-Ḥijāb 'an Wujuh A'mal al-Hisab'' (Lifting the Veil from Faces of the Workings of Calculations) which covered topics such as computing
square roots
In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that ; in other words, a number whose ''square'' (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or ⋅ ) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16, because .
E ...
of a number and the theory of
continued fractions
In mathematics, a continued fraction is an expression obtained through an iterative process of representing a number as the sum of its integer part and the reciprocal of another number, then writing this other number as the sum of its integer ...
.
See also
*
List of Arab scientists and scholars
This is a list of Arab scientists and scholars from the Muslim World, including Al-Andalus (Spain), who lived from antiquity up until the beginning of the modern age, consisting primarily of scholars during the Middle Ages. For a list of cont ...
*
Ibn Ghazi al-Miknasi
Abu Abdallah Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Muhammad Ibn Ghazi al-'Utmani al-Miknasi () (1437–1513) was a Moroccan scholar in the field of history, Islamic law, Arabic philology and mathematics. He was born in Meknes from Banu Uthman, a clan in the ...
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Banna
1256 births
1321 deaths
13th-century astronomers
13th-century mathematicians
13th-century Moroccan people
13th-century Moroccan writers
14th-century astronomers
14th-century mathematicians
14th-century Moroccan people
14th-century Moroccan writers
Medieval Moroccan astronomers
Medieval Moroccan mathematicians
Algebraists
Geometers
People from Marrakesh
Mathematicians who worked on Islamic inheritance
Scientists who worked on qibla determination