The mathematician, astronomer, and translator of the House of Wisdom whose work on number theory, geometry, and statics bridged Greek and Arabic science.
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.