Al-Samawal al-Maghribi
12th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physician
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Al-Samawʾal ibn Yaḥyā al-Maghribī (Arabic: السموأل بن يحيى المغربي, c. 1130 – c. 1180), commonly known as Samawʾal al-Maghribi, was a mathematician, astronomer and physician.[1] Born to a Jewish family of Moroccan origin, he concealed his conversion to Islam for many years for fear of offending his father, then openly embraced Islam in 1163 after he had a dream telling him to do so.[2] His father was a rabbi from Morocco named Yehuda ibn Abūn.[3][4]
Samauʼal Al-Maghribī | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1130 |
| Died | c. 1180 |
| Academic background | |
| Influences | Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī |
| Academic work | |
| Era | Islamic Golden Age |
| Main interests | Mathematics, Medicine |
Mathematics
Al-Samaw'al wrote the mathematical treatise al-Bahir fi'l-jabr, meaning "The brilliant in algebra", at the age of nineteen.
He also used the two basic concepts of mathematical induction, though without stating them explicitly. He used this to extend results for the binomial theorem up to n=12 and Pascal's triangle previously given by al-Karaji.[5]
Polemics
He also wrote a famous polemic book in Arabic debating Judaism known as Ifḥām al-Yahūd (Confutation of the Jews). A Latin tract translated from Arabic and later translated into many Western languages, titled Epistola Samuelis Marrocani ad R. Isaacum contra errores Judaeorum, claims to be authored by a certain R. Samuel of Fez "about the year 1072" and is erroneously connected with him.[6][7][8]