Ahmed ibn Yusuf
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Ahmed ibn Yusuf al-Misri (835 - 912) was a mathematician, like his father Yusuf ibn Ibrahim.
[edit] Life
Ahmed ibn Yusuf was born in Baghdad (today in Iraq) and moved with his father to Damascus in 839. He later moved to Cairo, but the exact date is unknown: since he was also known as al-Misri, which means the Egyptian, this probably happened at an early age. Eventually, he also died in Cairo. He probably grew up in a strongly intellectual environment: his father worked on Mathematics, Astronomy and Medicine, produced astronomical tables and was a member of a group of scholars. He achieved an important role in Egypt, which was caused by Egypt's relative independence from the Abbasid Caliph.
[edit] Work
For some of the work attributed to Ahmed, it is not exactly clear whether he wrote his, whether his father wrote it or whether they wrote it together. It is clear, however, that he worked on a book on ratio and proportion. This was translated to Latin by Gherard of Cremona and was a commentary of Euclid's Elements. This book influenced early European mathematicians such as Fibonacci. Further, in On similar arcs, he commented on Ptolemy's Centiloquium. He also wrote a book on the astrolabe, a predecessor of the octant and the sextant. He invented methods to solve tax problems in Liber Abaci. He was also quoted by mathematicians such as Thomas Bradwardine, Jordanus Nemorarius and Luca Pacioli.
[edit] References
- O'Connor, John J., and Edmund F. Robertson. "Ahmed ibn Yusuf". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
- Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990).
- H. L. L. Busard and P. S. van Koningsveld, Der "Liber de arcubus similibus" des Ahmed ibn Jusuf, Annals of science 30 (1973), 381-406.
- M Steinschneider, Yusuf ben Ibrahim und Ahmed ibn Yusuf, Bibliotheca mathematica (1888), 49-117.
