Biography:Ibrahim ibn Sinan

Short description: Arab mathematician and astronomer

Ibrahim ibn Sinan
Born	c. 908 Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate, now Iraq
Died	946
Occupation	Astronomer, mathematician
Era	Islamic Golden Age
Parent(s)	Sinan ibn Thabit (father)

Ibrahim ibn Sinan (Arabic: Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurra, ابراهيم بن سنان بن ثابت بن قرة; born 295 – 296 AH/c. 908 in Baghdad, died: 334-335 AH/946 in Baghdad, aged 38) was a mathematician and astronomer who belonged to a family of scholars originally from Harran in northern Mesopotamia. He was the son of Sinan ibn Thabit (c. 880 – 943) and the grandson of Thābit ibn Qurra (c. 830 – 901). Like his grandfather, he belonged to a religious sect of star worshippers known as the Sabians of Harran.

Ibrahim ibn Sinan studied geometry, in particular tangents to circles. He made advances in the quadrature of the parabola and the theory of integration, generalizing the work of Archimedes, which was unavailable at the time. Ibrahim ibn Sinan is often considered to be one of the most important mathematicians of his time.

Sources

• Roberts, Alexandre M. (2017). "Being a Sabian at Court in Tenth-Century Baghdad". Journal of the American Oriental Society 137 (2): 253–277. doi:10.17613/M6GB8Z. 
• Van Brummelen, Glen (2007). "Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurra". in Hockey, Thomas. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. p. 574. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_697. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. https://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ibrahim_ibn_Sinan_BEA.htm.  (PDF version)

Further reading

• Rashed, Roshdi (1996). Les Mathématiques Infinitésimales du IXe au XIe Siècle 1: Fondateurs et commentateurs: Banū Mūsā, Ibn Qurra, Ibn Sīnān, al-Khāzin, al-Qūhī, Ibn al-Samḥ, Ibn Hūd. London.  Reviews: Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1998) in Isis 89 (1) pp. 112-113; Charles Burnett (1998) in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 61 (2) p. 406.
• Rashed, Roshdi (2008). "Ibrahim Ibn Sinan". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Encyclopedia.com. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830905786.html.