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About This Project

Creator

Creator: Professor Moez Ben‑Azzouz

Professor Ben‑Azzouz brings more than 25 years of experience teaching mathematics at the university level. While he guides students through the details of concepts, theory, and applications, he also enriches every lesson with historical context that grounds abstract ideas in humanity's intellectual heritage. By sharing stories that trace the origins of mathematical ideas, he helps students see the discipline as a living tradition rather than a detached abstraction.

He actively encourages students to investigate the historical roots of the topics they encounter, fostering independent research and deeper engagement. Through this project, Professor Ben‑Azzouz aims to provide a valuable resource for both students and instructors, a comprehensive exploration of a pivotal era of mathematical and scientific flourishing (the Islamic Golden Age) that has often been overlooked in Western narratives but which laid the groundwork for subsequent European and Western advancements.

Scope

An encyclopedic reference on the contributions of Muslim-world scholars to mathematics (with the mathematically inseparable parts of astronomy, optics, and mechanics), their transmission to Europe, and their connections to modern mathematics. Coverage: 69 scholars across eight era chapters, seven thematic chapters, three transmission chapters, legacy and etymology chapters, timeline, and glossary. Audience: students and the general public; the mathematics is shown honestly (with formulas) but nothing beyond early-undergraduate level is assumed.

Accuracy Standards

This compilation was drafted against explicit accuracy rules:

  1. Dates. Medieval dates are often uncertain; "c." and "fl." are used deliberately and follow the standard references (DSB, Rosenfeld & Ihsanoglu). Where sources disagree materially, the entry says so or gives the range.
  2. Debated claims are labeled debated. Examples flagged in the text: the spherical law of sines priority (three claimants); the route of the Tusi couple and Ibn al-Shatir's models to Copernicus (mathematical identity is fact, transmission is debated); Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi's "derivative" (Rashed's reading vs. Hogendijk's); the shay → x etymology (plausible, unproven); Ibn Hamza and logarithms (overstated in popular accounts); the almanac etymology (standard but debated).
  3. Sources are real. Every cited book, edition, and article in the Bibliography is a genuine publication. Per-entry source lines point to the standard scholarly literature on that figure.
  4. No invented quotations. Paraphrase is used instead of quotation except where a phrase is a standard, verifiable translation.
  5. Known weak spots are disclosed. The Ibn Hamza entry explicitly notes its thinner evidentiary base. Readers preparing formal coursework or publication should verify details against the census references named in the bibliography.

How This Reference Was Compiled

Drafted from the standard scholarly literature on the history of Islamic mathematics (Berggren, Katz, Rashed, Van Brummelen, Kennedy, King, Saliba, Sabra, Hogendijk, Djebbar, and the DSB), organized for navigation by person, by topic, and by transmission story. It is a synthesis for students and general readers, not original manuscript research.

Suggested Expansion Phases

The architecture supports growth:

  • Phase 2 — Depth. Promote major figures (al-Khwarizmi, Ibn al-Haytham, al-Biruni, Khayyam, al-Tusi, al-Kashi) to individual pages with worked mathematical examples (e.g., Khayyam's circle-parabola construction step by step; al-Kashi's sin 1° iteration executed).
  • Phase 3 — Primary texts. Add a translated-excerpts section keyed to the Katz Sourcebook and published editions.
  • Phase 4 — Visuals. Diagrams (Tusi couple animation, Saccheri quadrilateral, astrolabe projection), maps of centers and translation routes, and a graphical timeline.
  • Phase 5 — Problems. End-of-chapter exercises for classroom use (the material adapts naturally to Calculus II and History of Math courses).

Rights and Use

Text of this compilation may be used freely for educational purposes. The scholarly works cited remain under their own copyrights; quotations from them have been avoided in favor of paraphrase and citation.