Medieval Flashcards
Al-Kindi
Abu Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindi.
Latin: Alkindus;
c. 801–873 AD
He became a prominent figure in the House of Wisdom, and a number of Abbasid Caliphs appointed him to oversee the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language.
important role in introducing Indian numerals to the Islamic world, and subsequently, relabeled as Arabic numerals, to the Christian world, along with Al-Khwarizmi.[16] Al-Kindi was also one of the fathers of cryptography.[17][18] Building on the work of Al-Khalil (717–786),[19] Al-Kindi’s book entitled Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages gave rise to the birth of cryptanalysis, was the earliest known use of statistical inference,[20] and introduced several new methods of breaking ciphers, notably frequency analysis.[21][22]
Abbas ibn Firnas (latinized Armen Firman,
[Takurini (c. 809/810 – 887 A.D.)
.
Andalusi polymath: an inventor, astronomer, physician, chemist, engineer, Andalusi musician, and Arabic-language poet. He was reported to have experimented with a form of flight.
procedure to manufacture colourless glass and made magnifying lenses for reading, which were known as reading stones.
Al-Khwarizmi
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī
Arabized as al-Khwarizmi and formerly Latinized as Algorithmi
(c. 780 – c. 850),
Around 820 CE he was appointed as the astronomer and head of the library of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
Al-Khwarizmi’s popularizing treatise on algebra (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing) presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. One of his principal achievements in algebra was his demonstration of how to solve quadratic equations by completing the square.
Introduced the methods of “reduction” and “balancing” (the transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation, that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation), he has been described as the father or founder of algebra. The term algebra itself comes from the title of his book (the word al-jabr meaning “completion” or “rejoining”). His name gave rise to the terms algorism and algorithm.
In the 12th century, Latin translations of his textbook on arithmetic (Algorithmo de Numero Indorum) which codified the various Indian numerals, introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world.
Avicenna
Ibn Sina (Persian: also known as Abu Ali Sina , Pur Sina, and often known in the West as Avicenna.
(c. 980 – June 1037)
The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fi’t-Tibb). A five-volume encyclopedia. It was used as the standard medical textbook in the Islamic world and Europe up to the 18th century.
Book of Healing:
Upheavals and erosion form mountains.
Theory of impetus and motion.
Flying man scenario.
Discussed the philosophy of science and described an early scientific method of inquiry.
Argued that light had a speed, observing that “if the perception of light is due to the emission of some sort of particles by a luminous source, the speed of light must be finite.
Considered mathematical astronomy as a separate discipline to astrology.
Roger Bacon
c. 1219/20 – c. 1292),
Also known by the scholastic accolade Doctor Mirabilis.
Bacon applied the empirical method of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) to observations in texts attributed to Aristotle. Bacon discovered the importance of empirical testing when the results he obtained were different from those that would have been predicted by Aristotle.
An advocate of experimentation, but not necessarily a practitioner.
