MATHEMATICIANS from Turkey

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Turkish Mathematicians of all time. This list of famous Turkish Mathematicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Turkish Mathematicians.

1. Apollonius of Perga (-262 - -190)

With an HPI of 72.03, Apollonius of Perga is the most famous Turkish Mathematician.  His biography has been translated into 63 different languages on wikipedia.

Apollonius of Perga (Greek: Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Περγαῖος Apollṓnios ho Pergaîos; c. 240 BC – c. 190 BC) was an ancient Greek geometer and astronomer known for his work on conic sections. Beginning from the earlier contributions of Euclid and Archimedes on the topic, he brought them to the state prior to the invention of analytic geometry. His definitions of the terms ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola are the ones in use today. With his predecessors Euclid and Archimedes, Apollonius is generally considered among the greatest mathematicians of antiquity. Aside from geometry, Apollonius worked on numerous other topics, including astronomy. Most of this work has not survived, where exceptions are typically fragments referenced by other authors like Pappus of Alexandria. His hypothesis of eccentric orbits to explain the apparently aberrant motion of the planets, commonly believed until the Middle Ages, was superseded during the Renaissance. The Apollonius crater on the Moon is named in his honor.

2. Eudoxus of Cnidus (-408 - -355)

With an HPI of 70.37, Eudoxus of Cnidus is the 2nd most famous Turkish Mathematician.  His biography has been translated into 60 different languages.

Eudoxus of Cnidus (; Ancient Greek: Εὔδοξος ὁ Κνίδιος, Eúdoxos ho Knídios; c. 390 – c. 340 BC) was an ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician, doctor, and lawmaker. He was a student of Archytas and Plato. All of his original works are lost, though some fragments are preserved in Hipparchus' Commentaries on the Phenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus. Spherics by Theodosius of Bithynia may be based on a work by Eudoxus.

3. Al-Battani (858 - 929)

With an HPI of 68.54, Al-Battani is the 3rd most famous Turkish Mathematician.  His biography has been translated into 50 different languages.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Jābir ibn Sinān al-Raqqī al-Ḥarrānī aṣ-Ṣābiʾ al-Battānī (Arabic: محمد بن جابر بن سنان البتاني), usually called al-Battānī, a name that was in the past Latinized as Albategnius, (before 858 – 929) was an astronomer, astrologer and mathematician, who lived and worked for most of his life at Raqqa, now in Syria. He is considered to be the greatest and most famous of the astronomers of the medieval Islamic world. Al-Battānī's writings became instrumental in the development of science and astronomy in the west. His Kitāb az-Zīj aṣ-Ṣābi’ (c. 900), is the earliest extant zīj (astronomical table) made in the Ptolemaic tradition that is hardly influenced by Hindu or Sasanian astronomy. Al-Battānī refined and corrected Ptolemy's Almagest, but also included new ideas and astronomical tables of his own. A handwritten Latin version by the Italian astronomer Plato Tiburtinus was produced between 1134 and 1138, through which medieval astronomers became familiar with al-Battānī. In 1537, a Latin translation of the zīj was printed in Nuremberg. An annotated version, also in Latin, published in three separate volumes between 1899 and 1907 by the Italian Orientalist Carlo Alfonso Nallino, provided the foundation of the modern study of medieval Islamic astronomy. Al-Battānī's observations of the Sun led him to understand the nature of annular solar eclipses. He accurately calculated the Earth's obliquity (the angle between the planes of the equator and the ecliptic), the solar year, and the equinoxes (obtaining a value for the precession of the equinoxes of one degree in 66 years). The accuracy of his data encouraged Nicolaus Copernicus to pursue ideas about the heliocentric nature of the cosmos. Al-Battānī's tables were used by the German mathematician Christopher Clavius in reforming the Julian calendar, and the astronomers Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Edmund Halley all used Al-Battānī's observations. Al-Battānī introduced the use of sines and tangents in geometrical calculations, replacing the geometrical methods of the Greeks. Using trigonometry, he created an equation for finding the qibla (the direction which Muslims need to face during their prayers). His equation was widely used until superseded by more accurate methods, introduced a century later by the polymath al-Biruni.

4. Anthemius of Tralles (474 - 534)

With an HPI of 66.09, Anthemius of Tralles is the 4th most famous Turkish Mathematician.  His biography has been translated into 37 different languages.

Anthemius of Tralles (Greek: Ἀνθέμιος ὁ Τραλλιανός, Medieval Greek: [anˈθemios o traliaˈnos], Anthémios o Trallianós; c. 474 – 533 x 558) was a Byzantine Greek from Tralles who worked as a geometer and architect in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. With Isidore of Miletus, he designed the Hagia Sophia for Justinian I.

5. Thābit ibn Qurra (836 - 901)

With an HPI of 64.29, Thābit ibn Qurra is the 5th most famous Turkish Mathematician.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Thābit ibn Qurra (full name: Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Zahrūn al-Ḥarrānī al-Ṣābiʾ, Arabic: أبو الحسن ثابت بن قرة بن زهرون الحراني الصابئ, Latin: Thebit/Thebith/Tebit; 826 or 836 – February 19, 901), was a polymath known for his work in mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and translation. He lived in Baghdad in the second half of the ninth century during the time of the Abbasid Caliphate. Thābit ibn Qurra made important discoveries in algebra, geometry, and astronomy. In astronomy, Thābit is considered one of the first reformers of the Ptolemaic system, and in mechanics he was a founder of statics. Thābit also wrote extensively on medicine and produced philosophical treatises.

6. Simplicius of Cilicia (490 - 560)

With an HPI of 62.32, Simplicius of Cilicia is the 6th most famous Turkish Mathematician.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Simplicius of Cilicia (; Greek: Σιμπλίκιος ὁ Κίλιξ; c. 480 – c. 560 AD) was a disciple of Ammonius Hermiae and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He was among the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Persian court, before being allowed back into the empire. He wrote extensively on the works of Aristotle. Although his writings are all commentaries on Aristotle and other authors, rather than original compositions, his intelligent and prodigious learning makes him the last great philosopher of pagan antiquity. His works have preserved much information about earlier philosophers which would have otherwise been lost.

7. Callippus (-370 - -300)

With an HPI of 59.39, Callippus is the 7th most famous Turkish Mathematician.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Callippus (; Ancient Greek: Κάλλιππος; c. 370 BC – c. 300 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician.

8. Autolycus of Pitane (-360 - -290)

With an HPI of 58.98, Autolycus of Pitane is the 8th most famous Turkish Mathematician.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Autolycus of Pitane (Greek: Αὐτόλυκος ὁ Πιταναῖος; c. 360 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek astronomer, mathematician, and geographer. He is known today for his two surviving works On the Moving Sphere and On Risings and Settings, both about spherical geometry.

9. Theon of Smyrna (70 - 135)

With an HPI of 55.34, Theon of Smyrna is the 9th most famous Turkish Mathematician.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Theon of Smyrna (Greek: Θέων ὁ Σμυρναῖος Theon ho Smyrnaios, gen. Θέωνος Theonos; fl. 100 CE) was a Greek philosopher and mathematician, whose works were strongly influenced by the Pythagorean school of thought. His surviving On Mathematics Useful for the Understanding of Plato is an introductory survey of Greek mathematics.

10. Theodosius of Bithynia (-160 - -100)

With an HPI of 49.71, Theodosius of Bithynia is the 10th most famous Turkish Mathematician.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Theodosius of Bithynia (Greek: Θεοδόσιος Theodosios; 2nd–1st century BC) was a Hellenistic astronomer and mathematician from Bithynia who wrote the Spherics, a treatise about spherical geometry, as well as several other books on mathematics and astronomy, of which two survive, On Habitations and On Days and Nights.