Abū al-Wafā' Būzjānī
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) (10 June 940 – 15 July 998) was a Persian mathematician and astronomer who worked in Baghdad.
Contents
Biography
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.
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.
He wrote translations and commentaries on the algebraic works of Diophantus, al-Khwārizmī, and Euclid's Elements.
Legacy
The crater Abul Wáfa on the Moon is named after him.
See also
External links
- Abū al-Wafā' Būzjānī @ Wikipedia
