Al-Karaji

Abu Bakr al-Karaji was an exceptional mathematician and hydraulic engineer who worked extensively in Baghdad. In his seminal algebraic treatises Al-Fakhri and Al-Badi', he successfully freed arithmetic and algebra from geometric constraints, developing polynomial arithmetic and using mathematical induction centuries before European mathematicians.

His practical civil engineering masterpiece, Inbat al-Miyah al-Khafiyya (The Extraction of Hidden Waters), is the earliest known manual on subterranean hydrology, qanat construction, surveying instruments, and ground water management. His engineering principles remain revered in the history of sustainable civil infrastructure.