Arabic name: Banu Musa Ibn Shakir Al-Munajjim THE Banu Musa brothers (“Sons of Musa Ibn Shakir”) were three scholars at Baghdad, active in the House of Wisdom: Ja'far Muhammad Ibn Musa (800-873), who specialized in astronomy, engineering, geometry and physics, Ahmad Ibn Musa Ibn Shakir (805-873), who specialised in engineering and mechanics, Al-Hasan Ibn Musa (810–873), who specialised in engineering and geometry. The Banu Musa brothers were among the first group of mathematicians who faced the hard task to carry forward the mathematical developments in Islamic civilisation in the first half of the 9th century. Their most famous treatise is “The Book of the Measurement of Plane and Spherical Figures” in which they made important mathematical contributions. This work became well known through the translation into Latin by Gherard of Cremona under the title Liber trium fratum de geometria. The three brothers are most known by their achievements in mechanics. Their book Kitab Al-Hiyal (The Book of Ingenious Devices) is an outstanding contribution in the field of mechanical sciences. Although it is ascribed to them jointly, certain testimonies ascribe it to Ahmad Ibn Musa, who seems to be the mechanician of the group.
