# Mathematician:Mathematicians/Sorted By Birth/501 - 1000 CE

For more comprehensive information on the lives and works of mathematicians through the ages, see the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, created by John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson.

The army of those who have made at least one definite contribution to mathematics as we know it soon becomes a mob as we look back over history; 6,000 or 8,000 names press forward for some word from us to preserve them from oblivion, and once the bolder leaders have been recognised it becomes largely a matter of arbitrary, illogical legislation to judge who of the clamouring multitude shall be permitted to survive and who be condemned to be forgotten.[1]

Previous  ... Next

## 501 - 600

##### Varāhamihira (505 – 587)

Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer.

One of several early mathematicians to discover what is now known as Pascal's triangle.

Defined the algebraic properties of zero and negative numbers.

Improved the accuracy of the sine tables of Aryabhata I.

Made some insightful observations in the field of optics.
show full page

##### Brahmagupta (598 – 668)

Indian mathematician and astronomer.

Gave definitive solutions to the general linear equation, and also the general quadratic equation.

Best known for the Brahmagupta-Fibonacci Identity.
show full page

##### Bhāskara I (c. 600 – c. 680)

Indian mathematician who was the first on record to use Hindu-Arabic numerals complete with a symbol for zero.

Gave an approximation of the sine function in his Āryabhaṭīyabhāṣya of 629 CE.
show full page

## 701 - 800

##### Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780 – c. 850)

Full name: محمد بن موسى ابو جعفر الخوارزمي‎ -- Muḥammad bin Mūsā Abū Ǧaʿfar al-Ḫawārazmī.

Mathematician who lived and worked in Baghdad.

Famous for his book The Algebra, which contained the first systematic description of the solution to linear and quadratic equations.

Sometimes referred to as "the father of algebra", but some claim the title should belong to Diophantus.
show full page

##### Leon the Mathematician (c. 790 – c. 870)

Archbishop of Thessalonike between $840$ and $843$.

Byzantine sage at the time of the first Byzantine renaissance of letters and the sciences in the $9$th century.

He was born probably in Constantinople where he studied grammar.

He later learnt philosophy, rhetoric, and arithmetic in Andros.
show full page

## 801 - 900

##### Mahāvīrāchārya (c. 800 – c. 870)

Mahāvīrāchārya (literally: Mahāvīrā the teacher) was an Indian mathematician best known for separating the subject of mathematics from that of astrology.

Gave the sum of a series whose terms are squares of an arithmetical progression and empirical rules for area and perimeter of an ellipse.
show full page

##### Al-Kindi (c. 801 – c. 873)

Full name: Abu Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī' (Arabic: أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي‎, Latin: Alkindus).

Persian mathematician, philosopher and prolific writer famous for providing a synthesis of the Greek and Hellenistic tradition into the Muslim world.

Played an important role in introducing the Arabic numeral system to the West.
show full page

##### Thabit ibn Qurra (836 – 901)

Sabian mathematician, physician, astronomer, and translator who lived in Baghdad in the second half of the ninth century during the time of Abbasid Caliphate.

Made important discoveries in algebra, geometry, and astronomy.

One of the first reformers of the Ptolemaic system in Astronomy.

A founder of the discipline of statics.
show full page

## 901 - 1000

##### Abu Bakr al-Karaji (c. 953 – c. 1029)

Full name: Abū Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn al Ḥusayn al-Karajī (or al-Karkhī).

Persian mathematician best known for the Binomial Theorem and what is now known as Pascal's Rule for their combination.

Also one of the first to use the Principle of Mathematical Induction.
show full page

##### Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (965 – c. 1039)

Full name:

• Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham
• In Arabic: ابو علي، حسن بن حسن بن الهيثم
• In Persian: ابن هیثم

Best known as Alhacen or (deprecated) Alhazen.

Persian philosopher, scientist and all-round genius who made significant contributions to number theory and geometry.

His work influenced the work of René Descartes and the calculus of Isaac Newton.
show full page

##### Halayudha (c. 1000 )

Halayudha was an Indian mathematician who wrote the Mṛtasañjīvanī, a commentary on Piṅgalá's Chandah-shastra, containing a clear description of Pascal's triangle (called meru-prastaara).
show full page

## References

1. Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics, 1937, Victor Gollancz, London.