Life
Thabit ibn Qurra (826–901), from the Sabian community of Harran, became a leading scholar at Baghdad, translating and correcting Greek mathematical and astronomical works (Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy) and making original contributions of his own — on amicable numbers, the generalization of the Pythagorean theorem, statics, and the theory of numbers. A polymath who wrote in both Syriac and Arabic, he was a key figure in the transmission and advancement of the exact sciences.