Mathematics of Western Asia

Summary: The people of western Asia have long studied and influenced mathematics.

Ancient western Asia, including Anatolia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and the Iranian plateau, along with Egypt, is regarded by many as the cradle of civilization. Activities that shaped numerous civilizations are traced historically to this region, including the invention of the wheel, practice of agriculture, first writing systems, and first administrative structures. Many intellectual and scientific disciplines flourished. The development of mathematics followed and was affected by the rise and decline of the civilizations of western Asia. Throughout history, the territory has been settled or invaded by many ethnic groups, including the Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Islamic cultures. Some countries were also part of the Soviet Union. It is not always possible to determine the exact origin of historical figures, and, as such, people may be included in the histories of many regions or identified by cultural heritage and the location where they did their work. Further, many of their accomplishments are named for later mathematicians. The twenty-first-century United Nations grouping for western Asia is listed as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Babylon

Historical knowledge of Babylonian mathematics is largely limited to translations of the surviving clay tablets that have been unearthed by archaeologists, but even this evidence suggests a rich depth and breadth of mathematics scholarship, largely focused on practical problems. Subsequent cultures that came to the region also left parts of their mathematical legacies. With the emergence of Islam at the end of the sixth century, many of the nomadic tribes living in the Arabian Peninsula joined together to form a significant power.

By the early eighth century, a sociopolitical entity often called the Islamic Empire, which was ruled mostly by a series of government entities known as caliphates, spanned from Spain and north Africa to southeastern Anatolia, Persia, and the western portion of central Asia. On the east, the region shared a long border with India, and hence many Muslim intellectuals were also cognizant of Indian culture and mathematical accomplishments. Many local rulers encouraged scholarship, building on the legacy left by the Hellenic and Roman periods.

The House of Wisdom in Baghdad, in what is now Iraq, became the main hub of research and intellectual activity, rivaling Alexandria at its zenith. Works of Hellenistic mathematicians were translated into Arabic—the only surviving copies of certain works. Mathematicians also extended and introduced new ideas and fields. Social factors were another motivating influence in mathematics scholarship in Muslim lands, such as the calculation of the local daily prayer times, the direction of the prayer (toward Mecca), and the determination of the local first day and the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Since the commonly used lunar calendar was 11 days shorter than the solar year, this problem added complexity for numerous peoples and religions in the area. Observing the heavens and predicting the astronomical events was a major field of research for mathematicians and astronomers.

Ottoman Empire and Turkey

Wars brought turmoil to the area, and scholarly activities suffered. Following the conquest of Istanbul in 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed-II built madrasas (buildings used for teaching Islamic theology and religious law, often including a mosque) and encouraged scholars to congregate. However, later events negatively impacted mathematics in western Asia; for example, the destruction of centers of learning such as the Istanbul observatory and the spread of religious scholasticism (a philosophy of teaching that follows a relatively a narrow set of traditional methods heavily influenced by religious teachings), which also occurred in medieval Europe. Some scholars indicate the passage of mathematical leadership over to Europe after about the fifteenth century.

Ottoman Empire efforts of the early nineteenth century reenergized mathematics efforts. Vidinli Hüseyin Tevfik Pasa (1832–1901) contributed to linear algebra and Mehmet Nadir (1856–1927) worked on the theory of Diophantine equations, named for Diophantus of Alexandria. The Ottoman Empire faded after World War I, but the Turkish Republic continued its efforts. A well-known Turkish mathematician is Cahit Arf (1910–1997), known for the Arf invariant in algebraic topology, Arf semigroups, and Arf rings, among others. The Turkish Journal of Mathematics is one of the many scientific journals published by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. The Turkish Mathematical Society was founded in 1948, and the country is a member of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a worldwide association that promotes mathematics research and activity. In 1978, Turkey began participating in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), a competition for high school students. Turkey hosted the IMO in 1993.

Israel

Mathematical activity in Israel dates back to antiquity, and it is one of the countries in western Asia with a thriving mathematics community. This fact is due in part to researchers like algebraist Shimshon Avraham Amitsur, who was one of the 1963 founders of the Israel Journal of Mathematics. Some other notable Israeli-born mathematicians include Oded Schramm, Saharon Shelah, and 2010 Fields Medal winner Elon Lindenstrauss. The Einstein Institute of Mathematics, named for Albert Einstein, was founded in the 1920s. Israel is a member of the IMU, and Israeli high school students first participated in the IMO in 1979. The Israel Mathematical Union is an organization that offers opportunities for students, teachers, and researchers. In the twenty-first century, there were some calls to boycott Israeli scholars over disputed territories. In response, numerous mathematical organizations worldwide, including the IMU, passed resolutions that stressed the importance of open international scientific exchange.

Other Countries

A revitalization of mathematical activity took place in many other western Asian countries in the twentieth century often connected with professional organizations or national institutes of science. For example, the development of contemporary mathematics in Armenia is tied to the 1944 beginnings of the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. The country began participating in the IMO in 1993, the same year as Azerbaijan.

The first issue of the Azerbaijan Journal of Mathematics was published in January 2011. The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences supports the Kuwait Mathematics Program at the University of Cambridge, which underscores the relationships between western Asia and universities in other areas of the world. Kuwait began participating in the IMO in 1982.

In 2010, the editor of the Arab Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences was from Jordan. The Cyprus Mathematical Society was founded in 1983 and hosts activities like the Cyprus Mathematical Olympiad. Cyprus began participating in the IMO in 1984, Bahrain in 1990, the United Arab Emirates in 2008, and Syria in 2009. Saudi Arabia first participated in the IMO in 2004. It is also a member of the IMU, and mathematicians gather through the Saudi Association for Mathematical Sciences. Oman is an associate member of the IMU. Countries such as Qatar have developed mathematics standards for grades 1–9. Some countries in western Asia continue to be affected by the area’s ongoing sociopolitical volatility. Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and is redeveloping many aspects of its national identity. It began participating in the IMO in 1993 and is a member of the IMU through the Georgian National Mathematical Committee. Iraq is also rebuilding itself after the turmoil of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first-century wars.

Some countries in the region participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In 2003, the study included fourth graders from the Republic of Yemen; eighth graders from Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian National Authority, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Saudi Arabia; and both fourth and eighth graders from Armenia and Cyprus. In 2007, even more countries from this region participated, including Armenia, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian National Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, and Yemen. In 2011, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian National Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen are included with benchmarking participants from this region listed as including Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Dubai, UAE.

Bibliography

Carr, Karen. “West Asian Mathematics.” History for Kids. http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/science/math.htm.

Inonu, Erdal. “Mehmet Nadir: An Amateur Mathematician in Ottoman Turkey.” Historia Mathematica 33, no. 2 (2006).

Irzik, Gurol, and Güven Güzeldere, eds. Turkish Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science). New York: Springer, 2005.

Mathematics in Israel: Historical and Current Affairs.http://imu.org.il/#mathinisrael.

Supreme Education Council. “Qatar Mathematics Standards: Grade 9.” http://www.education.gov.qa/CS/en‗math/9.pdf.

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. http://timss.bc.edu/timss2003.html.