Abū Kāmil Shujā ibn Aslam

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Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ ibn Aslam ibn Muḥammad ibn Shujā (c. 850 – c. 930) (Arabic: ابو كامل‎) for short, was an Egyptian mathematician during the Islamic Golden Age. He has also been called al-Hasib al-Misri—literally, "the Egyptian calculator."

Unlike the many polymaths of this era—notably al-Khwarizmi, al-Kindi, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen in the West), al-Biruni, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Ibn Rushd (Averroes)—Abu Kamil was a specialist. His field was algebra. His Book on rare things in the art of calculation treated systems of equations whose solutions are whole numbers or fractions and also combinatorics. This work led to later research into the real numbers, solutions of polynomials, and finding roots by later scientists of the age such as al-Karaji and Ibn Yaḥyā al-Maghribī al-Samawʾal. His work The Book of Precious Things in the Art of Reckoning contains general methods for solving linear equations.

[edit] References

• Levey, Martin (1970). "Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ ibn Aslam ibn Muḥammad ibn Shujā". Dictionary of Scientific Biography 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 30-32. ISBN 0684101149. 
• O'Connor, John J. & Robertson, Edmund F., “Abu Kamil Shuja ibn Aslam ibn Muhammad ibn Shuja”, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive 
• Djebbar, Ahmed. Une histoire de la science arabe: Entretiens avec Jean Rosmorduc. Seuil (2001)

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