( 178 )
especially to cure a fractured bone. It is thus used in the following passage from Motanabbi (p. 143, 144, ed. Calcutt.)
| ومن اعوذ به ممـا احـــادره | يا من الوذ بـه فيما اوملــه | |
| جودا وان عطاياه جواهره | ومن توهمت أن البحر راحته | |
| يد البلا وذوي في السجن ناضره | ارحم شباب فتي أودت بجدته | |
| ولا يهيضون عظما انت جابره | لا يجبر الناس عظما انت كاسره |
“O thou on whom I rely in whatever I hope, with whom I seek refuge from all that I dread; whose bounteous hand seems to me like the sea, as thy gifts are like its pearls: pity the youthfulness of one, whose prime has been wasted by the hand of adversity, and whose bloom has been stifled in the prison. Men will not heal a bone which thou hast broken, nor will they break one which thou hast healed.”
Hence the Spanish and Portuguese expression algebrista for a person who heals fractures, or sets right a dislocated limb.
In mathematical language, the verb means, to make perfect, or to complete any quantity that is incomplete or liable to a diminution; i.e. when applied to equations, to transpose negative quantities to the opposite side by changing their signs. The negative quantity thus removed is construed with the particle ب: thus, if shall be changed into , the direction is اجبر المال بالستة وزدها على الثلثة والعشرين i.e. literally “Restore the square from (the deficiency occasioned to it by) the six, and add these to the twenty-three.”
