Two mathematicians on Muslim inheritance law

Urmawi, Arafa bin Muhammad al-. Al-Turuq al-Wadihat fi 'Amal al-Munashkat.

€ 8.500,00

Commentary on a work by the Egyptian mathematician Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ha'im (ca. 1352-1412), specifically Ibn al-Ha'im's treatise on Muslim inheritance law, "Shibak al-Munasakhat". The author of the manuscript commentary was the Syrian mathematician al-Urmawi (d. 1523/24 CE), a scholar specializing in the intricacies of inheritance. Al-Urmawi would have been well aware of Ibn al-Ha'im's many contributions to various fields of mathematics, from inheritance law to early algebra.

Copied just 70 years after its author's death, this manuscript features a large chart stretching across two pages to aid a mathematician in calculating inheritance. By the 16th century CE, medieval Muslim inheritance law already boasted a long history, and was a quite complex and mathematically demanding field. Specialists were highly trained and would supplement their learning with textbooks like this one. Often, as in the cases of both al-Ha'im and al-Urmawi, inheritance scholars were also trained mathematicians. In al-Ha'im's case in particular, it was not uncommon to find them at the forefront of developments not only in practical mathematics, but also in more abstract lines of inquiry, such as al-Ha'im's interest in the new math of algebra.