ABSTRACT
The three brothers MuÌammad, AÌmad and al-Îasan, sons of Mºsæ ibn Shækir, are usually referred to collectively by their patronymic alone. Early biobibliographers simply entitled their articles Banº Mºsæ (the sons of Moses),1 and their modern counterparts have invariably followed suit – where they have not just copied their work wholesale.2 Aspects of this tradition continued in the Latin texts, with Gerard of Cremona referring to them in this way: ‘Filii Sekir, i.e. Maumeti, Hameti, Hasen’.3 It should be understood that referring to the lives of the Banº Mºsæ in this manner has not prevented biographers from acknowledging their existence as independent individuals from one another, nor the occasional mention of one of them without mentioning the other two. They have also managed to highlight a number of individual differences between the brothers, which are of great importance to us, including MuÌammad’s interest in astronomy and
mathematics, AÌmad’s talents in the field of mechanics, and al-Îasan’s genius in geometry.4 They have even attributed at times writings composed under the forenames of all three Banº Mºsæ to a single brother.5
