Misplaced Pages

Abu Muhammad Abd al-Haqq al‐Ghafiqi al‐Ishbili (Arabic: ابن الهائم), also known as Ibn al‐Hāʾim (fl. c. 1213 was a medieval Muslim astronomer and mathematician from Seville.

He is known to modern scholars for his al‐Zīj al‐kāmil fī al‐talim (1204/5), which was had a great influence on the development of Islamic astronomy and which has provided important information on astronomers from Al-Andalus, including the instrument maker and astrologer Al-Zarqali.

Life

Ibn al‐Hāʾim originated from Seville in Al-Andalus. As a student, he learnt mathematics using the works of the scholars Al-Jayyani and Jabir ibn Aflah. He probably worked in North Africa, at a time when the Almohad Caliphate ruled the region. Ibn al‐Hāʾim became proficient at mathematics and was familiar with the trigonometrical concepts introduced into al‐Andalus by the scholar Ibn Mu'adh al-Jayyani in the 11th century and developed during the next century by the astronomer and mathematician Jābir ibn Aflaḥ.

al‐Zīj al‐kāmil fī al‐talim

In 1204/5 Ibn al‐Hāʾim wrote al‐Zīj al‐kāmil fī al‐talim ("The Perfect Handbook on Mathematical Astronomy"), a treatise that consisted of an introduction and seven books. A zīj in all but name, the information it contains does not include any numerical tables. It was considered exceptionally complete and accurate by Islamic medieval astronomers, and he had a great influence on the development of astronomy in the Maghreb.

The work has provided modern historians with important information on earlier astronomers in al‐Andalus. It gives historical data on the life and works of the instrument maker and astrologer Al-Zarqali and the creation of the Tables of Toledo by astronomers in Toledo patronized by the qadi Said Al-Andalusi.

Ibn al‐Hāʾim further extended Al-Zarqali's theories on the oscillation of the obliquity of the ecliptic, presented spherical trigonometrical formulae, gives a longitude of the solar apogee of 85° 49′ and further confirmed the works of Al-Zarqali. The work also deals with the computation of the Moon's longitude and latitude, attempting to correct Ptolemy's theory.

A copy of the manuscript is held at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, UK.

Notes

1. ^ Puig 2007, pp. 555–556.
2. Samsó 1997, p. 405.
3. "Al-Kāmil fī al-taʻlīm". Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World. Fihrist. Retrieved 14 February 2023.

Sources

• Puig, Roser (2007). "Ibn al‐Hāʾim: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al‐Ḥaqq al‐Ghāfiqī al‐Ishbīlī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer Publishers. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)
• Samsó, Julio (1997). "Ibn al‐Hāʾim". In Helaine Selin (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 9780792340669.

Further reading

• Samso, Julio (2013). "Ibn al‐Hāʾim". In Selin, Helaine (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Berlin: Springer Nature. p. 405. ISBN 978-94017-1-416-7.

v t e Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world
Mathematicians	9th century 'Abd al-Hamīd ibn Turk Sanad ibn Ali al-Jawharī Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf Al-Kindi Qusta ibn Luqa Al-Mahani al-Dinawari Banū Mūsā brothers Hunayn ibn Ishaq Al-Khwarizmi Yusuf al-Khuri Ishaq ibn Hunayn Na'im ibn Musa Thābit ibn Qurra al-Marwazi Abu Said Gorgani 10th century Abu al-Wafa al-Khazin Al-Qabisi Abu Kamil Ahmad ibn Yusuf Aṣ-Ṣaidanānī Sinān ibn al-Fatḥ al-Khojandi Al-Nayrizi Al-Saghani Brethren of Purity Ibn Sahl Ibn Yunus al-Uqlidisi Al-Battani Sinan ibn Thabit Ibrahim ibn Sinan Al-Isfahani Nazif ibn Yumn al-Qūhī Abu al-Jud Al-Sijzi Al-Karaji al-Majriti al-Jabali 11th century Abu Nasr Mansur Alhazen Kushyar Gilani Al-Biruni Ibn al-Samh Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi Avicenna al-Jayyānī al-Nasawī al-Zarqālī ibn Hud Al-Isfizari Omar Khayyam Muhammad al-Baghdadi 12th century Jabir ibn Aflah Al-Kharaqī Al-Khazini Al-Samawal al-Maghribi al-Hassar Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi Ibn al-Yasamin 13th century Ibn al‐Ha'im al‐Ishbili Ahmad al-Buni Ibn Munim Alam al-Din al-Hanafi Ibn Adlan al-Urdi Nasir al-Din al-Tusi al-Abhari Muhyi al-Din al-Maghribi al-Hasan al-Marrakushi Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi Shams al-Din al-Samarqandi Ibn al-Banna' Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī 14th century Nizam al-Din al-Nisapuri Ibn al-Shatir Ibn al-Durayhim Al-Khalili al-Umawi 15th century Ibn al-Majdi al-Rūmī al-Kāshī Ulugh Beg Ali Qushji al-Wafa'i al-Qalaṣādī Sibt al-Maridini Ibn Ghazi al-Miknasi 16th century Al-Birjandi Muhammad Baqir Yazdi Taqi ad-Din Ibn Hamza al-Maghribi
Mathematical works	The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing De Gradibus Principles of Hindu Reckoning Book of Optics The Book of Healing Book on the Measurement of Plane and Spherical Figures Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity Toledan Tables Tabula Rogeriana Zij
Concepts	Alhazen's problem Islamic geometric patterns
Centers	Al-Azhar University Al-Mustansiriya University House of Knowledge House of Wisdom Constantinople observatory of Taqi ad-Din Madrasa Maragheh observatory University of al-Qarawiyyin
Influences	Babylonian mathematics Greek mathematics Indian mathematics
Influenced	Byzantine mathematics European mathematics Indian mathematics
Related	Hindu–Arabic numeral system Arabic numerals (Eastern Arabic numerals, Western Arabic numerals) Trigonometric functions History of trigonometry History of algebra

• 13th-century Arab people
• 13th-century people from al-Andalus
• Astronomers from al-Andalus
• Mathematicians from al-Andalus
• 13th-century mathematicians
• 13th-century astronomers