Mathematician:Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Mathematician
Multi-discipline scientist and prolific writer who pre-empted several later Western scientists:
- Darwin with his ideas on evolution
- Copernicus on his heliocentric view of the solar system
- Galileo with his insight into the nature of the Milky Way.
Calculated the value of $51'$ for the precession of the equinoxes.
The first to separate the science of trigonometry, particularly spherical trigonometry, from that of astronomy.
Nationality
Persian
History
- Born: 18 Feb 1201, Tus, Khorasan (now Iran)
- Died: 26 June 1274, Kadhimain (near Baghdad, now in Iraq)
Theorems and Definitions
Definitions of concepts named for Nasir al-Din al-Tusi can be found here.
Publications
Around $150$ works, including:
- 1232: Akhlaq-i Nasiri: a work on ethics, in which he described his Theory of Evolution
- 1247: Tahrir al-Majisti ("Commentary on the Almagest")
- c. 1250: Kitāb al-Shakl al-Qattā ("Treatise on the Quadrilateral"): a five volume summary of trigonometry
- 1272: Zij-i Ilkhani (Ilkhanic Tables): a major astronomical treatise
- Al-Tadhkirah fi'ilm al-Hay'ah (A memoir on the Science of Astronomy)
- Al-Risalah al-Asturlabiyah (A Treatise on the Astrolabe)
- Sharh al-Isharat (Commentary on Avicenna's Isharat)
- Awsaf al-Ashraf: a short mystical-ethical work in Persian
- Tajrīd al-iʿtiqād (Summation of Belief): a commentary on Shia doctrines
Many translations and commentaries on Greek texts.
Arabic versions of works by:
- Autolycus of Pitane
- Aristarchus of Samos
- Euclid
- Apollonius of Perga
- Archimedes of Syracuse
- Hypsicles of Alexandria
- Theodosius of Bithynia
- Menelaus of Alexandria
- Claudius Ptolemy
In particular:
- a commentary on Sphaerica by Menelaus
- a commentary on On the Sphere and Cylinder by Archimedes
Also known as
In Persian: نصیر الدین طوسی
Full name: Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tūsī (محمد بن محمد بن الحسن طوسی)
Some parts of his name are often rendered with diacritics:
- Naṣīr, Nasîr
- al-Dīn
- al-Ṭūsī
- Muḥammad
Also known as:
- Khawaja Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan Tūsī
- Muhaqqiq-i Tusi
- Khwaja-yi Tusi
- Khwaja Nasir
- Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al‐Ḥasan Naṣīr al‐Dīn al‐Ṭūsī
- Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al Ṭūsī
His name can also be seen reported by some sources as Nasîr-Eddin
Known in the west simply as Tusi.
Sources
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Nasir al-Din al-Tusi": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
- 2008: Ian Stewart: Taming the Infinite ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $5$: Eternal Triangles: Early trigonometry