Opening conference

 Medieval Béjaia

Center for the Transmission of The Mediterranean Knowledge

Djamil AISSANI

Djamil AISSANI

LaMOS Research Unit, University of Bejaia, Algeria
 
LaMOS
 

Short biography

Djamil Aïssani is a State Doctor of Mathematical Sciences since 1984, Professor since 1988, 1st Dean of Faculty at the University of Béjaia (in 1999) and Director of the LaMOS Research Unit (Modeling and Optimization of Mathematical Systems). He is the Coordinator and Scientific Director of the 1st Algerian Doctoral School in Computer Science (2003 - 2011) and President of the Learned Society GEHIMAB (History of Mathematics in Béjaia, the Maghreb and the Mediterranean - founded in 1991). He is Research Director at the CNRPAH Algiers, Curator of the Mega Exhibition "Scientific Manuscripts of the Maghreb" (2012, currently open at the Centre des Etudes Andalouses, Tlemcen) and co-editor (with Pauline Lebret-Romero and Norbert Verdier) of the special issue "Polytechniciens en Algérie au XIXème siècle" of the international review Sabix (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris), n° 24, December 2019, 170 pages.

 

Abstract

« Vidi Buggea che v’é di gran loda »
(I saw Béjaia that everyone praises)
Fazio Degli Uberti (1305 – 1367)
Dittamendo (5ème livre, chap. 5)

 

Located in the heart of the Mediterranean area, Béjaia (Bgayet in Berber, Bougie in French, Bugia in Italian, Catalan and Spanish, Buggea – Buzea in Latin), a city in Algeria which gave its name to small candles (the "bougies" ), and from which the "Arabic numerals" were popularized in Europe, had become in 1067 the new capital of the Berber Kingdom of the Hammadites. Very quickly, it will become one of the most dynamic scientific and intellectual centers in the Maghreb [1], [5].

In the middle of the 19th century, the translation (by the Baron De Slane) of the Muqqadima of the sociologist 'Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406) was at the origin of the first research on medieval scientific activities in the Maghreb [5]. We then discover the significant role played by this region in the production and transmission of knowledge across the Mediterranean: influence of the medicine of the Countries of Islam by Constantin l’Africain, role in the commentary of Aristode by Ibn Rochd – Averoès, dissemination of numeration, methods of calculation and commercial techniques of the Countries of Islam by the famous Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci (1170 - 1240) [3], [1], use of a specific symbolism [5], influence on the logico-mathematical principles of the Catalan philosopher Raymond Lulle (1235 - 1315) [5].

On the basis of multiple cultural and scientific comments, the first part of this conference proposes to discover the medieval mathematical tradition of North Africa (computational science, algebra, geometry, astronomy, astrology, heritage sciences, commercial mathematics, music, magic squares, methods of navigation, logic, shipbuilding,…) and its environment, through the contribution of some Ulemas – Scholars of the XIth – XVth centuries (Ibn al-Banna, al-Qalasadi, Piri Reis,…). The second part will dwell on the intellectual centers, the institutions, the inter-city relations, the process of transmission,... and their relations with the Christian West.

The same is true for the periods of the “dark centuries of the Maghreb” (16th – 18th centuries: al-Akhdari, Ibn Hamza, etc.) and the 19th century: knowledge available from local scholars (Lmuhub Ulahbib, al-Hafnawi, …) and activities in the Maghreb of Western mathematicians (François Arago, Eugène Dewulf, Albert Ribaucour, Auguste Bravais, André-Louis Cholesky,…) [4], [6].

Some références 

[1] Aïssani D.and al., Les Mathématiques à Bougie Médiévale et Fibonacci. In the book « Leonardo Fibonacci : il tempo, le opera, l’eredità scientifica », Pacini Editore (IBM Italia), Pisa, 1994, pp. 67 - 82.

[2] Aïssani D., Le Mathématicien Eugène Dewulf et les Manuscrits Médiévaux du Maghreb. International Journal Historia Mathematica, N° 23, Academic Press Ed. (U.S.A.), 1996, pp. 257 – 268.

[3] Aïssani D. et Valerian D., Mathématiques, Commerce et Société à Béjaïa (Bugia) au moment du séjour de Leonardo Fibonacci. International Journal “Bollettino di Storia delle Scienze Matematiche, Vol. XXIII, Fas. 2, Roma, 2003, pp. 09 – 31.

[4] Verdier N., Romera-Lebret P. et Aïssani D., « Itinéraires de Savants Géomètres en Algérie au XIXe siècle, Image des Mathématiques, C.N.R.S. Ed., Paris, May 2016.

[5] Aïssani D., «Les Mathématiques Maghrébines ». Revue Quaderni di Ricerca in Didattica/Mathematics, n° 2, supplemento n° 3, G.R.I.M. Ed., Palermo, 2019, pp. 19 – 35. ISSN one-line 1592 – 4424.

[6] Aïssani D. et Rouxel B., Le séjour algérien du géomètre Albert Ribaucour (1886 – 1893), Revue internationale « Bulletin de la Sabix », n° 64, Ecole Polytechnique Editions, Paris, décembre 2019, pp. 109 – 126

 

Figure 1. The scientific fields of the great intellectual centers of the Muslim world. Exhibition: the golden age of Arab science. I.M.A. Paris

 Figure 2. Consultation session of the Princes of Science: From right to left, Sidi Boumedienne, Abu Hamid as- Saghir, Abd al-Haq al-Ishbili and Ibn Hammad

Figure 3. In Marrakech, a lecture by the famous mathematician Ibn al-Banna (1256 - 1321)

Figure 4. The Kitab al-Bayan by the famous Maghrebian mathematician al-Hassar (12th century) is the first in which the fraction line appears

Figure 5. From the 12th to the 14th century, Béjaia was the leading intellectual center of the central Maghreb. The city attracted scholars from all over the Maghreb and al-Andalus

Figure 6. Algorithm (al-Khawarizmi) in 1450. Personification of arithmetic in the Middle Ages

Figure 7. Leonardo Fibonacci (1170-1240). A student from Béjaia

Figure 8. It was from Béjaia that Arabic numerals were popularized in Europe

Figure 9. Raymond Lulle's "Disputes" in Béjaïa in 1307. Today, they are part of the history of Christian-Muslim dialogue 

Figure 10. Lulle in discussion with the scholars of Béjaïa. Cover of the book "Disputatio Raymundi christiani et Hamar Sarraceni". First edition Valencia, 1510 ( Joan Jofre )

Figure 11. "Béjaia where I become Hadjeb with absolute authority" Ibn Khaldoun

Figure 12. Muqqadima, Autograph manuscript by Ibn Khaldun. Istanbul Library

Figure 13. The Andalusian mathematician al-Qalasadi (1412 - 1486). The "last of the mathematicians" popularized the symbolism used in the Maghreb

Figure 14. Symbolism in the description of the comet observed in 1744. Mangana de Tlemcene d'astrologie. Kashf al-'Asrar 'an 'Ilm H'urûf al-Ghûbar. Treatise on the Science of Calculation by the Andalusian mathematician al-Qalasadi

 

 Figure 15. Turkish admiral Piri Reis stayed at the Sidi Touati Zawiya around 1495 - Béjaia

Figure 16. Sidi Touati mausoleum, early 20th century

Figure 17. Map of Piri Reis. Kingdom of Béjaia and its region at the end of the 15th century

Figure 18. In 1808 (i.e. before colonization), François Arago made a spectacular crossing of Kabylia

Figure 19. Polytechnician Albert Ribaucour, a specialist in differential geometry, was stationed in Béjaia and Philippeville (now Skikda). He managed 07 major projects in Béjaia (here, the project to reuse the Saldae - Toudja Roman aqueduct)

 
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