Abu al-Wafa' Buzjani

Abu al-Wafa' al-Buzjani
Born	(940-06-10)June 10, 940 Buzhgan, Iran
Died	July 15, 998(998-07-15) (aged 58) Baghdad
Academic background
Influences	Al-Battani
Academic work
Era	Islamic Golden Age
Main interests	Mathematics and Astronomy
Notable works	Almagest of Abū al-Wafā'
Notable ideas	Tangent function Law of sines Several trigonometric identities
Influenced	Al-Biruni, Abu Nasr Mansur

Abū al-Wafāʾ, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ismāʿīl ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Būzjānī or Abū al-Wafā Būzhjānī (Persian: ابوالوفا بوزجانی or بوژگانی‎)^[1] (10 June 940 – 15 July 998)^[2] was a Persian^[3][4] mathematician and astronomer who worked in Baghdad. He made important innovations in spherical trigonometry, and his work on arithmetics for businessmen contains the first instance of using negative numbers in a medieval Islamic text.

He is also credited with compiling the tables of sines and tangents at 15 ' intervals. He also introduced the secant and cosecant functions, as well studied the interrelations between the six trigonometric lines associated with an arc.^[2] His Almagest was widely read by medieval Arabic astronomers in the centuries after his death. He is known to have written several other books that have not survived.

Life[]

He was born in Buzhgan, (now Torbat-e Jam) in Khorasan (in today's Iran). At age 19, in 959 AD, he moved to Baghdad and remained there for the next forty years, and died there in 998.^[2] He was a contemporary of the distinguished scientists Abū Sahl al-Qūhī and Al-Sijzi who were in Baghdad at the time and others like Abu Nasr ibn Iraq, Abu-Mahmud Khojandi, Kushyar ibn Labban and Al-Biruni.^[5] In Baghdad, he received patronage by members of the Buyid court.^[6]

Astronomy[]

Abu Al-Wafa' was the first to build a wall quadrant to observe the sky.^[5] It has been suggested that he was influenced by the works of Al-Battani as the latter describes a quadrant instrument in his Kitāb az-Zīj.^[5] His use of tangent helped to solve problems involving right-angled spherical triangles, and developed a new technique to calculate sine tables, allowing him to construct more accurate tables than his predecessors.^[6]

In 997, he participated in an experiment to determine the difference in local time between his location, Baghdad, and that of al-Biruni (who was living in Kath, now a part of Uzbekistan). The result was very close to present-day calculations, showing a difference of approximately 1 hour between the two longitudes. Abu al-Wafa is also known to have worked with Abū Sahl al-Qūhī, who was a famous maker of astronomical instruments.^[6] While what is extant from his works lacks theoretical innovation, his observational data were used by many later astronomers, including al-Biruni.^[6]

Almagest[]

Among his works on astronomy, only the first seven treatises of his Almagest (Kitāb al-Majisṭī) are now extant.^[7] The work covers numerous topics in the fields of plane and spherical trigonometry, planetary theory, and solutions to determine the direction of Qibla.^[5][6]

Mathematics[]

He defined the tangent function, and he established several trigonometric identities such as sin(a ± b) in their modern form, where the Ancient Greek mathematicians had expressed the equivalent identities in terms of chords.^[8]

${\displaystyle \sin(\alpha \pm \beta )=\sin \alpha \cos \beta \pm \cos \alpha \sin \beta }$

${\displaystyle \sin(a+b)=\sin(a)\cos(b)+\cos(a)\sin(b)}$

${\displaystyle \cos(2a)=1-2\sin ^{2}(a)}$

${\displaystyle \sin(2a)=2\sin(a)\cos(a)}$

He also discovered the law of sines for spherical triangles:

${\displaystyle {\frac {\sin A}{sina}}={\frac {\sin B}{sinb}}={\frac {\sin C}{sinc}}}$

where A, B, C are the sides (measured in radians on the unit sphere) and a, b, c are the opposing angles.^[8]

Some sources suggest that he introduced the tangent function, although other sources give the credit for this innovation to al-Marwazi.^[8]

Works[]

• Almagest (كتاب المجسطي Kitāb al-Majisṭī).
• A book of zij called Zīj al‐wāḍiḥ (زيج الواضح), no longer extant.^[6]
• "A Book on Those Geometric Constructions Which Are Necessary for a Craftsman", (كتاب في ما یحتاج إليه الصانع من الأعمال الهندسية Kitāb fī mā yaḥtāj ilayh al-ṣāniʿ min al-aʿmāl al-handasiyya).^[9] This text contains over one hundred geometric constructions, including for a regular heptagon, which have been reviewed and compared with other mathematical treatises. The legacy of this text in Latin Europe is still debated.^[10][11]
• "A Book on What Is Necessary from the Science of Arithmetic for Scribes and Businessmen", (كتاب في ما يحتاج إليه الكتاب والعمال من علم الحساب Kitāb fī mā yaḥtāj ilayh al-kuttāb wa’l-ʿummāl min ʾilm al-ḥisāb).^[9] This is the first book where negative numbers have been used in the medieval Islamic texts.^[6]

He also wrote translations and commentaries on the algebraic works of Diophantus, al-Khwārizmī, and Euclid's Elements.^[6]

Legacy[]

• The crater Abul Wáfa on the Moon is named after him.^[12][13]
• On 10 June 2015, Google changed its logo in memory of Abu al-Wafa' Buzjani.^[14]

Notes[]

References[]

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Mohammad Abu'l-Wafa Al-Buzjani", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews
• Hashemipour, Behnaz (2007). "Būzjānī: Abū al‐Wafāʾ Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al‐Būzjānī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 188–9. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)
• Raynaud, D. (2012), "Abū al-Wafāʾ Latinus? A Study of Method", Historia Mathematica, 39 (1): 34–83, doi:10.1016/j.hm.2011.09.001 (PDF version)
• Youschkevitch, A.P. (1970). "Abū'l-Wafāʾ Al-Būzjānī, Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Yaḥyā Ibn Ismāʿīl Ibn Al-ʿAbbās". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 39–43. ISBN 0-684-10114-9.

External links[]