The only woman to win the Fields Medal was a Muslim

[notimportant1234]

I don't know about muslims but a lot of numerical methods(this is The Word for Word translations) are named after arabs.

[Alexmahone]

According to https://www.imo-official.org/country_ind...ender=hide, Iran has been doing surprisingly well in the International Mathematical Olympiad. Their school system seems to be doing a good job producing young mathematicians.

[SaStrike]

Was she actually a muslim though? Lived, did her research and teaching in California, married non-muslim, never wears hijab in public, would be killed or imprisoned in her native home etc etc

[polymath257]

In the title describing 'Indian' techniques, the specifics were the use of 'arabic' numbers: our base 10 system. This *was* adopted from India, but it was the Muslim scholars that extended it to widespread use and developed the techniques we use for addition and multiplication today.

As far as algebra goes, the Muslim scholars took what later Greek mathematicians had done (very little) and extended it. In the process, they learned how to manipulate polynomials, solve many types of cubic equations, started to understand infinite decimal expansions, figured out how to approximate trigonometric functions (not to mention actually inventing the ones we use today and considering their properties).

So, yes, a great deal of mathematics at the level of algebra and trigonometry (as well as spherical geometry) was developed by Muslim mathematicians.

I wasn't able to determine Mirzakhani's religious beliefs, but she was definitely born in Iran.

[The Grand Nudger]

-and it's still more accurate to say that they were developed by conquered populations, often paying a tax for not being muslims.... under the control of an oppressive islamic state.  

There's the myth of the umma and islam..and then the reality.  The truth of the umma and islam is that it was entirely like other regimes of the time, we could compare them to romans in this regard - more accumulators and transmitters than innovators.  Cheifly engaged in military organisation and deployment, and with empire comes both the benefits of the vassal population and the necessity of efficient logistics. Speaking of Iran, one of the reasons for the later split in islam was continued angst over the dissolution of the persian state and culture under arab warlords.

The whole "islam/muslims did this or that" shtick..for a contemporary reference....is the middle eastern equivalent of christianity claiming ownership/authorship of whatever people happened to do under it's centuries long grift. Ironically, it was the vast prohibitions on other facets of expression that lead to math being seen as an acceptable outlet for creative and intellectual effort. The funhouse mirror counterpart to the catholic church creating a culture that produced impressive works of art as it tightened it's grip on other outlets.

[polymath257]

While it may well be the case that the earlier mathematicians in the Muslim world were 'conquered people', it was definitely NOT the case later on.

So, al-Kwarizmi was almost certainly a 'conquered person'; his name suggests where he lived (central asia).

But, al-Samawal (who worked with polynomials) and al-Kashi (who was an excellent mathematician) would have been thoroughly part of the Islamic culture of their times. Similarly for Umar Kayyami (Omar Kayyam), author of the Rubiyyat and one of the first investigators of cubic equations.

We can go a bit further. Spherical geometry was stimulated by the desire to establish the direction of the qibla (to Mecca) from distant places. A fair amount of early algebra was devoted to working through the rules in the inheritance laws.

BTW, are people aware that the notion of a 'number line' was invented around 1000 AD in Baghdad?

[The Grand Nudger]

-adden

Beyond the self aggrandizing tendency in the histories we write for ourselves..it's fair (and even generous) to say that theocratic states by their nature stifle inquiry out of necessity.  There's only so far you can take something until it crosses the line in magic book (or until someone uses a line in magic book to cross your throat for any number of ulterior reasons).  

Had the west not engaged in christendom..and the middle east not engaged in islamism...there's no reason to assume that the arc of discovery would have been terminated...entirely the opposite.  The affrontery of the whole thing is that...kicking and screaming and gutting people the whole way, when human beings do manage to drag these barbaric theocracies up against their own will and efforts..they;re all to willing to implicitly or explicitly claim the advances made under protest for themselves and their attendant cultural apparatus.  

Monotheism (religious and colonial..though it might be redundant to separate the two) set us back a thousand years or more...and knowing this....it doesn't seem like any sort of gratitude or credence would be warranted for the few things that slipped through their horrid fingers over those years, ultimately massing up and building the bedrock of the modern world as we know it.  Particularly when they've spent their time since the fall of theocracy fighting tooth and nail to put every genie back in every bottle and return us to that previous state of ignorance.

@poly
That's true, over time., the regime managed to appropriate not only the culture and accomplishments of conquered populations...but their children as well. May as well credit the united states for the invention of native american agricultural systems, while we're at it. I think people would be surprised at how many things we consider part of the modern world were invented by pre-columbian cultures...and even their later, thoroughly screwed post contact descendants.

---

-and don't even get me started on china..they're like the simpsons of world history..whatever it is you want to do...they did it first.

[R00tKiT]

For those of you are curious about the contributions of Muslims to mathematics:

• They invented algebra.
  
• Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian Muslim, is the only woman to win the Fields Medal. She died in 2017 of breast cancer.
  

Aside from math, there is Abdus Salam, a Muslim Nobel Laureate in physics. This is enough to invalidate any claim about Islam being incompatible with doing science.

[Silver]

Islam, when attempting to pair religion with science, invalidates itself.

Muslims who want to do science unhindered by religious hooey, I'm sure can be quite brilliant.

[Jehanne]

For those of you are curious about the contributions of Muslims to mathematics:

• They invented algebra.
  
• Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian Muslim, is the only woman to win the Fields Medal. She died in 2017 of breast cancer.
  

Aside from math, there is Abdus Salam, a Muslim Nobel Laureate in physics. This is enough to invalidate any claim about Islam being incompatible with doing science.

The exception does not prove the rule: