When Poetry Taught Algebra
Scientific articles · Amal Al-Jubouri — Poet, Research Fellow, SOAS University of London
Reflections on The History of Mathematics and Its Philosophical Development
For most of my life, mathematics was never my favourite subject. Yet life has its own ironies: more than four decades ago, the highest mark I received in my secondary school examinations was in mathematics, 96 out of 100.
That forgotten memory resurfaced while reading The History of Mathematics and Its Philosophical Development, the remarkable new volume by Professor Mahmoud Al-Hamza. Among the many themes that captivated me, one stood out above all: the role of poetry in preserving scientific knowledge.
One of the finest examples is the celebrated mathematical poem of Ibn al-Yāsamīn al-Fāsī, whose didactic urjūzah on algebra became, as Professor Al-Hamza notes, a standard teaching reference for centuries. The Urjūzah reminds us that the boundaries separating disciplines are historically recent.
By the time I reached the final pages, I had arrived at an unexpected conclusion: poetry and mathematics are not opposites. Each seeks harmony beneath apparent chaos — one through metaphor and rhythm, the other through proof and number. There was a time when poetry could teach algebra.