Person: Al-Samarqandi, Shams al-Din
Shams al-Samarqandi was an Islamic mathematician who wrote works on theology, logic, philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Nothing is known of al-Samarqandi's life except that he composed his most important works around 1276.
- Al-Samarqandi wrote a work Risala fi adab al-bahth which discussed the method of intellectual investigation of reasoning using dialogue.
- In mathematics al-Samarqandi is famous for a short work of only 20 pages which discusses 35 of Euclid's propositions.
- Although a short work, al-Samarqandi consulted widely the works of other Islamic mathematicians before writing it.
- For example he refers to writings by al-Haytham, Omar Khayyam, al-Jawhari, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, and al-Abhari.
- Not only did al-Samarqandi consult the writings of many other mathematicians before writing his short work, in turn several later mathematicians read al-Samarqandi's 20 page work and referred to it in their own writings.
- For example Qadi Zada mentions al-Samarqandi's short work on Euclid's propositions.
Born about 1250, Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Died about 1310.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Ancient Arab, Astronomy, Origin Uzbekistan
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
