Islamic Magic Squares, 18th Century
Two magic squares, the top one a 3x3 square buduh square and the lower one 5x5. The magic square, given as a charm of easing childbirth in the Jabirean corpus, is thought to be of Chinese origin. It consisted of nine cells with the numbers 1 to 9 arranged with 5 in the center so that the contents of each row, column and the two diagonals added up to 15. The numbers were written in the abjad letter-numerals, and because the four corners of this square contained the letters ba', dal, waw (or u), and ha', this particular square became known as the buduh square. In subsequent years Islamic writers developed a variety of methods for forming larger magic squares, in which no numeral was repeated and the sums of each row and each column and the two diagonals were the same. Magic squares with cells 4x4 or 6x6 or 7x7 were particularly popular, with 10x10 squares being produced by the 13th century. By the 19th century 100x100 magic squares, with 10,000 individual cells, were being produced.
Size: 2400px × 4374px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, 18th, arab, arabian, arabic, art, artwork, buduh, century, charm, childbirth, chinese, drawing, easing, famous, historic, historical, history, illustration, important, islamic, magic, manuscript, medical, medicine, moslem, muslim, notable, numbers, numerals, obstetrics, origin, properties, science, square, squares, talisman, talismanic, wafq
