Thābit ibn Qurra

Abu l -Hasan Thabit ibn Qurra ibn Marwan al- Sabi 'al- Harrani (* 826 in Harran, Turkey, † February 18 901 in Baghdad, Iraq, Arabic أبو الحسن ثابت بن قرة بن مروان الصابئ الحراني, DMG Abu l - Ḥasan Thabit b. Qurra b. Marwan aṣ - Sabi ʾ al - Harrani ) was a Syrian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, magician, physicist, physician and philosopher who is known by the Latinized form of the name Thebit in Europe.

Thabit ibn Qurra was a member of the Sabians of Harran, the followers of old Mesopotamian religions star. Citing the Suras 2:62 and 6:69 of the Koran, they were tolerated as a religion of the book. They dealt intensively with astronomy / astrology, magic and mathematics. After Ihwan kitab al-Safa, an Arabic encyclopedia of the 10th century. , They are viewed as a prophet Hermes Trismegistus. Also Thabit dealt with all branches of science, mysticism, and philosophy, as he saw it all as a unit. His work De hermetic Imaginibus had great influence in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

At a young age he was said to be money changer in Harran. His mathematical talent was Muhammad bin Musa bin Shakir, one of Banu Musa brothers, to which appointed him to studies at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. Later he was appointed court astronomer to the Caliph al - Mu'tadid bi- ' llah.

In the area of Harran was spoken preferred Syriac, a form of Aramaic, and Greek. Thabit ibn Qurra translated Greek works by Archimedes and Apollonius of Perga into Arabic and commented Elements of Euclid ( of which he published an edition based on the translation and in cooperation with Ishaaq ibn Hunayn ), the Almagest and Geographia of Ptolemy, medical works of Galen of Pergamum and Hippocrates of Kos. Thabits translation of a lost work by Archimedes through the regular heptagon was discovered only in the 20th century. He also wrote his own works on mathematics, astronomy and physics.

In mathematics, he dealt among other things with the generalization of the Pythagorean theorem, the axiom of parallels, magic squares and number theory, known is his theorem on Friends figures. The theory of amicable numbers is a further development of the Arithmetic of Nicomachus of Gerasa.

From the astronomical work Thabits eight books have survived. He was instrumental in the development of Islamic astronomy, especially on the mathematization of theory and analysis of observations. Nicolaus Copernicus took the value of the sidereal year of 365 days 6 hours 9 minutes and 12 seconds ( 2 seconds deviation ) from ibn Qurras About the solar year. The erroneous theory of the trepidation of the equinoxes, which is also used when Copernicus, is generally attributed to Thabit (On the motion of the eighth sphere ), but it is mentioned by Theon of Alexandria.

The Kitab fi'l - qarastun was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona and served in the Middle Ages as a textbook of mechanics.

His descendants were also great scholars. Sinan ibn Thabit His son was a doctor, the overseer of all public hospitals in Baghdad. Ibrahim ibn Sinan ibn His grandson Thabit is known for its calculations for the construction of sundials.

He is a lunar crater was named in honor Thebit.

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