Born : 1100 CE, Seville,
al-Andalus
Died : 1150
CE
Main interests : Astronomy, Mathematics.
Abū Muḥammad Jābir ibn
Aflaḥ (Arabic: أبو
محمد جابر بن أفلح, Latin: Geber/Gebir; 1100–1150) was
an Arab Muslim astronomer and mathematician from Seville,
who was active in 12th century al-Andalus. His work Iṣlāḥ
al-Majisṭi (Correction of the Almagest)
influenced Islamic, Jewish, and Christian astronomers.
Iṣlāḥ al-Majisṭi (Correction of the Almagest)
This work is a
commentary and reworking of Ptolemy's Almagest and is the
first criticism of it in the Islamic West. He particularly criticized the
mathematical basis of the work. For example, he replaced the use
of Menelaus' theorem with ones based on spherical trigonometry,
in what seems to be an attempt to increase the mathematical precision of the
work. These theorems had been developed by a group of 10th century Islamic
mathematicians who included Abū al-Wafā' Būzjānī and then also
by Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muadh Al-Jayyani who worked in
Andalusia during the 11th century. Jābir does not credit any of these authors
and does not refer to a single Islamic author in this work.
One substantial change
Jābir made to Ptolemy's account is that he placed the orbits
of Venus and Mercury, the minor planets, outside that of
the Sun, rather than between the Moon and the Sun as had been
the case in the original work.
Inventor
The Torquetum was
invented by Jabir ibn Aflah.
He invented an
observational instrument known as the torquetum, a mechanical device to
transform between spherical coordinate systems.
Influence
Several later Islamic
authors were influenced by Jābir, including Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
and Nur ad-Din al-Betrugi, both of whom worked in Andalusia. The work was
transmitted to Egypt in the 12th century by Maimonides and
further east by the end of the 13th century.
The work was translated
from the Arabic into both Hebrew and Latin, the latter
by Gerard of Cremona, who Latinized his name as
"Geber". Through that channel it had a wide influence on
later European mathematicians and astronomers and helped to
promote trigonometry in Europe.
Much of the material on
spherical trigonometry in Regiomontanus' On Triangles (c.1463)
was taken directly and without credit from Jābir's work, as noted in the 16th
century by Gerolamo Cardano.
Sumber
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Mathematician
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