Sinan ibn Thabit

Sabian physician, astronomer and mathematician

Abū Saʿīd Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurra (Arabic: أبو سعيد سنان بن ثابت بن قرة), c. 880–943, was a medieval scholar who served as the court physician of the Abbasid caliphs al-Muqtadir (r. 908–934), al-Qahir (r. 932–934), and al-Radi (r. 934–940).^[1]

As the son of Thabit ibn Qurra (c. 830–901) and the father of Ibrahim ibn Sinan (908–946), Sinan belonged to an illustrious family of astronomers and mathematicians who hailed from the Upper-Mesopotamian city of Harran and who worked at the Abbasid court in Baghdad.^[2] He and his family belonged to a religious sect of star worshippers known as the Sabians of Harran, though Sinan was forced to convert to Islam during al-Qahir's brief reign (932–934), in which the Abbasid caliph persecuted the Sabians and eventually forced Sinan to flee to Khurasan for a short period.^[3] It appears that his children remained Sabian:^[4] his sons Ibrahim ibn Sinan and Thabit ibn Sinan (died 976) both remained Sabian, while one his daughters married into another Sabian family, giving birth to Ibrahim ibn Hilal al-Sabi' (925–994), who also resisted multiple attempts to convert him from his ancestral faith.^[5]

Although Sinan ibn Thabit was primarily known as a physician,^[6] having built several hospitals in Baghdad and having overseen a licensing system for physicians,^[7] he apparently did not write anything on medicine.^[8] His works, which dealt with political philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy,^[9] are all lost except for a short treatise on moral philosophy called Siyāsat al-nufūs ("On Governing Souls").^[10] His work on political philosophy, which was inspired by Plato's Republic, was criticized by the historian al-Mas'udi (died 956).^[11]

References

^ De Blois 1995; Dold-Samplonius 1981; O'Connor & Robertson 1999.
^ The entire family line is given by De Blois 1995; see also Roberts 2017.
^ De Blois 1995; Dold-Samplonius 1981; O'Connor & Robertson 1999.
^ De Blois 1995.
^ Roberts 2017, p. 253.
^ O'Connor & Robertson 1999.
^ Makdisi 1990, p. 249: "When, in the year 319/931, a man died as the result of an error on the part of a medical practitioner, al-Muqtadir gave orders to his Inspector of Markets that no one was to practise medicine unless licensed by Sinan b. Thabit. Over eight hundred and sixty physicians passed the examination and each was given a license defining the practice he was to pursue."
^ De Blois 1995.
^ O'Connor & Robertson 1999.
^ De Blois 1995.
^ O'Connor & Robertson 1999.

Sources

De Blois, François (1995). "Ṣābiʾ". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Lecomte, G. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VIII: Ned–Sam. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 673. ISBN 978-90-04-09834-3.
Dold-Samplonius, Yvonne (1981). "Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurra, Abū Saʿīd". In Gillispie, Charles C. (ed.). Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 12. New York: Charles Scribners’s Sons. pp. 447–448.
Makdisi, George (1990). The Rise of Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-7065-0.
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (1999). "Abu Said Sinan ibn Thabit ibn Qurra". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. University of St Andrews.
Roberts, Alexandre M. (2017). "Being a Sabian at Court in Tenth-Century Baghdad". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 137 (2): 253–277. doi:10.17613/M6GB8Z.

Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world

Mathematicians

9th century	'Abd al-Hamīd ibn Turk Sanad ibn Ali al-Jawharī Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf Al-Kindi Qusta ibn Luqa Al-Mahani al-Dinawari Banū Mūsā brothers Hunayn ibn Ishaq Al-Khwarizmi Yusuf al-Khuri Ishaq ibn Hunayn Na'im ibn Musa Thābit ibn Qurra al-Marwazi Abu Said Gorgani
10th century	Abu al-Wafa al-Khazin Al-Qabisi Abu Kamil Ahmad ibn Yusuf Aṣ-Ṣaidanānī Sinān ibn al-Fatḥ al-Khojandi Al-Nayrizi Al-Saghani Brethren of Purity Ibn Sahl Ibn Yunus al-Uqlidisi Al-Battani Sinan ibn Thabit Ibrahim ibn Sinan Al-Isfahani Nazif ibn Yumn al-Qūhī Abu al-Jud Al-Sijzi Al-Karaji al-Majriti al-Jabali
11th century	Abu Nasr Mansur Alhazen Kushyar Gilani Al-Biruni Ibn al-Samh Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi Avicenna al-Jayyānī al-Nasawī al-Zarqālī ibn Hud Al-Isfizari Omar Khayyam Muhammad al-Baghdadi
12th century	Jabir ibn Aflah Al-Kharaqī Al-Khazini Al-Samawal al-Maghribi al-Hassar Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi Ibn al-Yasamin
13th century	Ibn al‐Ha'im al‐Ishbili Ahmad al-Buni Ibn Munim Alam al-Din al-Hanafi Ibn Adlan al-Urdi Nasir al-Din al-Tusi al-Abhari Muhyi al-Din al-Maghribi al-Hasan al-Marrakushi Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi Shams al-Din al-Samarqandi Ibn al-Banna' Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī
14th century	Nizam al-Din al-Nisapuri Ibn al-Shatir Ibn al-Durayhim Al-Khalili al-Umawi
15th century	Ibn al-Majdi al-Rūmī al-Kāshī Ulugh Beg Ali Qushji al-Wafa'i al-Qalaṣādī Sibt al-Maridini Ibn Ghazi al-Miknasi
16th century	Al-Birjandi Muhammad Baqir Yazdi Taqi ad-Din Ibn Hamza al-Maghribi Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi