# Abu Kamil Shujaʿ ibn Aslam

Full name:
Abū Kāmil, Shujāʿ ibn Aslam ibn Muḥammad Ibn Shujāʿ
Arabic name:
ابو كامل‎
Latin name:
Auoquamel
Date of birth:
850
Date of death:
930
Abū Kāmil, Shujāʿ ibn Aslam ibn Muḥammad Ibn Shujāʿ‎, also known as al-ḥāsib al-miṣrī—lit. "the Egyptian calculator") (c. 850 – c. 930) was an Egyptian Muslim mathematician during the Islamic Golden Age. He is considered the first mathematician to systematically use and accept irrational numbers as solutions and coefficients to equations. His mathematical techniques were later adopted by Fibonacci, thus allowing Abu Kamil an important part in introducing algebra to Europe.

Abu Kamil made important contributions to algebra and geometry. He was the first Islamic mathematician to work easily with algebraic equations with powers higher than x^2 (up to x^8), and solved sets of non-linear simultaneous equations with three unknown variables. He wrote all problems rhetorically, and some of his books lacked any mathematical notation beside those of integers. For example, he uses the Arabic expression "māl māl shayʾ" ("square-square-thing") for x^5 (i.e., x^2\cdot x^2\cdot x).