THE SCIENCE OF LETTERS · LESSON 3 OF 5 · 14 MIN
The Wafq — Magic Squares
The "harmonious arrangement of numbers" from Jābir's childbirth charm and the buduḥ to the mathematicians of Baghdad, the planetary squares, and how to build a square for any number.
A magic square is a grid of numbers in which every row, every column and both diagonals add to the same sum. In Arabic it is wafq al-aʿdād, "the harmonious arrangement of the numbers", or simply wafq. The Islamic world made the magic square a branch of mathematics — and a talisman.