Isaac ibn al-Ahdab

Itzḥak ben Shlomo ibn al-Aḥdab (or ibn al-Ḥadib) ben Tzaddiq ha-Sefardi (Hebrew: יצחק בן שלמה בן צדיק אלאחדב הספרדי‎, c. 1350 – c. 1426) was a Jewish mathematician, astronomer, and poet.[1]

Ibn al-Aḥdab was born in Castile to a prominent Jewish family. He was a student of Judah ben Asher II, the great-grandson of Asher ben Yeḥiel of Cologne, who was killed in the anti-Jewish massacres of 1391. By 1396 Ibn al-Aḥdab had fled Spain and was in Sicily, where he lived (in Syracuse and Palermo) until his death around 1426.[2]

Work

He studied the algebra of Maghrebi mathematician Ibn al-Bannā and published The Epistle of the Number, a translation and detailed commentary on Ibn al-Bannā's 13th century treatise Talḵīṣ ʿAmal al-Ḥisāb ("A summary of the operations of calculation").[3] The work is notable in being the first known Hebrew-language treatise to include extensive algebraic theories and operations.[4][5]

His main astronomical work was Oraḥ selulah, a set of tables in Hebrew for conjunctions and oppositions of the Sun and the Moon.[6]

References

Raanan, Ora, ed. (1988). The Poems of Iṣḥak ben Shlomo Al-Aḥdab (in Hebrew). Lod: Mekhon Haberman le-meḥḳere sifrut.
Steinschneider, M. (1964). Mathematik bei den Juden (in German) (2 ed.). Hildensheim. p. 168.
Katz, Victor (2016). "The Mathematical Cultures of Medieval Europe". History and Pedagogy of Mathematics.
Wartenberg, Ilana (2015). The epistle of the number, by Ibn al-Ahdab. Perspectives on Society and Culture. Piscataway: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-4632-0417-4.
Reif, Stefan C. (1997). Hebrew manuscripts at Cambridge University Library: a description and introduction. University of Cambridge Oriental Publications. 52. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521583398.
Goldstein, Bernard R.; Chabás, José (2006). "Isaac ibn al-Ḥadib and Flavius Mithridates: The Diffusion of an Iberian Astronomical Tradition in the Late Middle Ages". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 37 (127). pp. 147–172. Bibcode:2006JHA....37..147G. ISSN 0021-8286.

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[1] Raanan, Ora, ed. (1988). The Poems of Iṣḥak ben Shlomo Al-Aḥdab (in Hebrew). Lod: Mekhon Haberman le-meḥḳere sifrut.

[2] Steinschneider, M. (1964). Mathematik bei den Juden (in German) (2 ed.). Hildensheim. p. 168.

[katz-3] Katz, Victor (2016). "The Mathematical Cultures of Medieval Europe". History and Pedagogy of Mathematics.

[4] Wartenberg, Ilana (2015). The epistle of the number, by Ibn al-Ahdab. Perspectives on Society and Culture. Piscataway: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-4632-0417-4.

[5] Reif, Stefan C. (1997). Hebrew manuscripts at Cambridge University Library: a description and introduction. University of Cambridge Oriental Publications. 52. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521583398.

[6] Goldstein, Bernard R.; Chabás, José (2006). "Isaac ibn al-Ḥadib and Flavius Mithridates: The Diffusion of an Iberian Astronomical Tradition in the Late Middle Ages". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 37 (127). pp. 147–172. Bibcode:2006JHA....37..147G. ISSN 0021-8286.