Najib Ali Ali

A Syrian mathematician who developed early computational tools that influenced 19th-century engineering and astronomy.

Najib Ali Ali (1832–1899) revolutionized mathematical practices in the Ottoman Empire through his invention of the al-Hisab al-Muhtasib ("Calculated Abacus"), a mechanical device for solving complex equations. Trained in Damascus and Paris, he blended Arabic algebraic traditions with European calculus methods. His 1875 treatise Kitab al-Hisab al-Jadid introduced logarithmic tables adapted for Islamic lunar calendar calculations. Engineers in Egypt used his methods to design the Suez Canal's irrigation systems. Najib also pioneered statistical analysis for agricultural yields, helping Ottoman officials optimize crop production. His correspondence with French mathematician Henri Poincaré reveals early explorations of chaos theory concepts. The Najib Ali Ali Computational Archive digitizes his 12,000+ manuscript pages. Though overshadowed by European contemporaries, his work appears in "The Silent Revolutionaries of Mathematics", a 2019 anthology on non-Western scientific contributions.