The origin of the myth : the arab’s legends.
Many sites saying that Arabs has everything invented flourish on the web, saying that
they were influenced by spirits or surnatural entities, the djinns, only existing in the world of
dreams. Many people has reacted to this false stories or fake news[1].
Don’t forget the character of the arab population prone to create imaginary stories like «The
Sherazad stories about 1001 nights». So they imagined they would have been on the moon by
bike before E.T. or by rocket before Tintin! Or they would have been the first to create a
plane. In reality, a tipsy redneck falling from a tower opened his coat and has imagined he
could fly like a base jumper do it today. Unfortunately for this poor guy, his technique was
not good enough and he died when he hit the ground. But the arab’s legends continues to talk
about a «flying coat» and «miracle» like they did for «flying carpets» !
Let us give to Caesar back what belong to Caesar. Let us notice like an important giving to
science by the Arabs the non-scientific character of astrology and the construction in Persia
of the first astronomy observatories.
The myth of the Golden Age of Al-Andalous.
Some writers, like Ibn Warracq [2] (page 291), evoked the myth of the Golden Age of Al-
Andalous, and according to him this myth was created during Middle Age by Hebrews in
order to underline the poor conditions of living in Spain after the Reconquista. It was in order
to forget that the Jewish has been complied to convert to islam or to wear a small yellow
circle on their jackets, genuine ancestor of the yellow David Star (imposed by nazis during
the second world war). It was a manner to reach the oblivion of all the persecutions that
muslims imposed to non-muslims [2], what they called dhimmis, meaning slaves. During the
Reconquista, Hebrews settled in North Africa and imagined a mythic world, heaven for spirit
towards the repression of the Spanish people (and Inquisition) who convert them by force
threatening with torture or death penalty if they don’t.
The transmission of the greek knowledge towards the West by the byzantinian Romans monks who translates it.
The intellectuel Arab from Gaza Saqr Abou Fakhr [3] refute the fact that the West could not
have access to knowledge without Averroès and Ibn Khaldoun. He assert that «the main part
of nationalists arab writers and muslims novellists continues to maintain the idea of a
glorious old arab civilization». The idea that the Arabs have transmitted the Greek and
Roman knowledge to the West has been completely denied by serious studies [4]. It’s the
Roman byzantine monks returning from Constantinopolis who really have transmitted the
antique knowledge to the West. The Arabs only translated from Greek to Arab and thought
falsely that knowledge give power and their aim was to appropriate the power of other
people.
The plagiarism of the first greek mechanical calculator.
The discovery of mechanical arab astrolabs by the english archeologists entails that some of
them has imagined thet the arabs legends could have one hint of reality, ignoring the fact that
the mathematical background was Greek. They forgot the fake news generated by the arabs
shopkeepers in order to make increase artificially the prize of incens by telling fantastic
reports where the son of the shopkeeper would have climbed huge mountains, wrestled with
fierce beasts, and run in a deserted country to find the precious material.
The recent discovery of a machanical calculator in the sea in a area very close to the island of
Antikytera, created by Greeks following the works of Geminos or Hipparcos, and older than
all the arab mechanical astrolabs has completely erased the myth of a ancient glorious arab
civilization that only propagandists continues falsely to assert.
The machine of Antikytera possess a very complicated network of gearwheel that the
machine is still studying today in order to know how it works, when the arabs astrolabs
copying a small part of its complexity are simplier and easy to understand. The production of
gearwheels formed a noticeable industrial activity in the Roman Greece and was at the origin
of the first automatic machine created by Jews and byzantine Romans in Sicilia.
What the historical sources exactly says
Fallowing the works of Jens Hoyrup, professor at the university of Roskilde, we learn that
Al-Khwarizmi (Algorismus in latin and in french) does not create the art (of mathematics)
nor the manner to calculate. According to him, Al-Khwarizmi only produces a digest of all
the mathematical techniques existing at this period. [8]. He is not the «father of algebra» , he
is only the translator of the works of Brahmagupta and Diophante. Al-Khwarizmi confessed
in a letter adressed to the sultan that he was not the author of the techniques that he describes
in his treatise.
Rosen, who translates in english Al-Gabr w’al muqabala tell us that the vizier has demanded
to Al-Khwarizmi to translate mathematical books and has encouraged him to write a treatise
(Rosen : «That he was not the inventor of the Art is now well established»), synthesis of the
different translations[9]. According to Morris Kline, emeritus professor at the Courant
Institute of Mathematical Sciences (New York University), the Arabs don’t use the
symbolism. The «algebra» they used use purely rhetorical, and in comparison to Hindus and
Diophantus , a step behind[10] (page 192). According to him, they introcuced even a
regression in arithmetic because they refused to use negative numbers, well-known at this
period [10].
Nicolas Bourbaki, famous group of french mathematicians, in the chapter devoted to the
evolution of algebra don’t talk about Arabs, except to evoke the translations of the results of
greek and hindu mathematics.[11] (page 70). In the chapters devoted to linear algebra and
commutative algebra, no trace, no quote of any Arab. [11] (pages 78-91),
One can summarize this by saying that the contribution of the Arabs in the great history of
mathematical is microscopic. When we open the "Encyclopedia of mathematics" and we read
the heading "algèbra" , there is no contest : «Arithmetic of Diophantus (III rd century A.D.)
has had a major influence on the development of algebraic ideas and symbols"(...) François
Viète, end of XVIth century, was the first to use the letters of the alphabet to indicate the
constants and the variables of a problem. Most of the symbols of today were known in the
middle of the XVIth century, who is a benchmark of the end of the prehistory of algebra [12]
(page 73) Morris Kline [10] take his time in his book «Mathematical Tought» to explain the
origin of the word algebra, coming from the latin algebra. He explain that the word algebra is
issued from spanish "algebrista", meaning «medical doctor and barber» , coming from algabr
(name ot the book of Diophantus’s translation done by Al-Khwarizmi). By insisting on
the origin of the word, we have no doubt that Morris Kline mens that algebrista is a tribute to
doctors who saves life and not to a simple translator.
See Also Algorismus (Al-Khwarizmi) a well-known translator and The fabulous machine of Antikytera
References
[1] Forum kabyle, http://www.kabyle.com/forum/non-les-arabes-nont-pas-invente-lalgebre
[2] Ibn Warracq, Pourquoi je ne suis pas musulman, L’Age d’Homme, 1999
[3] Saqr Abou Fakhr, Non, l’Occident ne doit rien aux Arabes, Le Courrier International, 29
juillet 2004,
http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2004/07/29/non-l-occident-ne-doit-rien-auxarabes
[4] Sylvain Gougenheim, Aristote au Mont-Saint-Michel, Seuil, Collection L’Univers
Historique, 2008
[5] Le Figaro Histoire, juin-juillet 2016
[6] Reynald Secher, Vendée. Du génocide au mémoricide, éditions du Cerf, 2011
[7] Kadath, Revue d’archéologie parallèle
[8] Jens Hoyrup, "Algèbre d’Al-gabr" et "algèbre d’arpentage" au neuvième siècle islamique
et la question de l’influence babylonnienne in D’Imhotep à Copernic, Cahiers d’Altaïr, pp
88-89, Peeters-Leuven, 1992
[9] Rosen, traduction anglaise d’Al-Gabr w’al muqabala,
http : //www.wilbourhall.org/pdfs/The_Algebra_of_Mohammed_Ben_Musa2.pdf
[10] Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume 1, Oxford
University Press
[11] Nicolas Bourbaki, Eléments d’histoire des mathématiques, Masson, 1994
[12] Reidel, Encyclopedia of mathematics, Volume 1, Kluwer Academic Publisher, 1998
