A Brief History of Magic Squares

Magic squares have a rich history dating to around 2200 B.C. A Chinese myth claimed that while the Chinese Emperor Yu was walking along the Yellow River, he noticed a tortoise with a unique diagram on its shell. The Emperor decided to call the unusual numerical pattern lo shu. The earliest magic square on record, however, appeared in the first-century book Da-Dai Liji.

Magic squares in China have been used in various areas of study, including astrology; divination; and the interpretation of philosophy, natural phenomena, and human behavior. Magic squares also permeated other areas of Chinese culture. For example, Chinese porcelain plates on display in museums and private collections were decorated with Arabic inscriptions and magic squares.

Magic squares most likely traveled from China to India, then to the Arab countries. From the Arab countries, magic squares journeyed to Europe, then to Japan. Magic squares in India served multiple purposes other than the dissemination of mathematical knowledge. For example, Varahamihira used a fourth-order magic square to specify recipes for making perfumes in his book on seeing into the future, Brhatsamhita (ca. 550 A.D.). The oldest dated third-order magic square in India appeared in Vrnda's medical work Siddhayoga (ca. 900 A.D.), as a means to ease childbirth.

Little is known about the beginning of research on magic squares in Islamic mathematics. Treatises in the ninth and tenth centuries revealed that the mathematical properties of magic squares were already developed among what were then Islamic Arabic-speaking nations. Further, history suggests that the introduction of magic squares was entirely mathematical rather than magical. The ancient Arabic designation for magic squares, wafq ala'dad, means "harmonious disposition of the numbers." Later, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Islamic mathematicians made a grand leap forward by proposing a series of simple rules to create magic squares. The thirteenth century witnessed a resurgence in magic squares, which became associated with magic and divination. This idea is illustrated in the following quotation by Camman, who speaks of the spiritual importance of magic squares:

If magic squares were, in general, small models of the Universe, now they could be viewed as symbolic representations of Life in a process of constant flux, constantly being renewed through contact with a divine source at the center of the cosmos.

Considerable interest in magic squares was also evident in West Africa. Magic squares were interwoven throughout the culture of West Africa. The squares held particular spiritual importance and were inscribed on clothing, masks, and religious artifacts. They were even influential in the design and building of homes. In the early eighteenth century, Muhammad Ibn Muhammad, a well-known astronomer, mathematician, mystic, and astrologer in Muslim West Africa, took an interest in magic squares. In one of his manuscripts, he gave examples of, and explained how to construct, odd-order magic squares.

During the fifteenth century, the Byzantine writer Manuel Moschopoulos introduced magic squares in Europe, where, as in other cultures, magic squares were linked with divination, alchemy, and astrology. The first evidence of a magic square appearing in print in Europe was revealed in a famous engraving by the German artist Albrecht Dürer. In 1514, Dürer incorporated a magic square into his copperplate engraving Melencolia I in the upper-right corner.

Chen Dawei of China launched the beginning of the study of magic squares in Japan with the import of his book Suan fa tong zog, published in 1592. Because magic squares were a popular topic, they were studied by most of the famous wasan, who were Japanese mathematics experts. In Japanese history, the oldest record of magic squares was evident in the book Kuchi-zusam, which described a 3-by-3 square.

During the seventeenth century, serious consideration was given to the study of magic squares. In 1687-88, a French aristocrat, Antoine de la Loubere, studied the mathematical theory of constructing magic squares. In 1686, Adamas Kochansky extended magic squares to three dimensions. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, mathematicians applied the squares to problems in probability and analysis. Today, magic squares are studied in relation to factor analysis, combinatorial mathematics, matrices, modular arithmetic, and geometry. The magic, however, still remains in magic squares.

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