Abu al-Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al-Biruni (973-1050) was an outstanding scholar reputed

to have written over 100 treatises on astronomy, science, mathematics, geography, history,
geodesy and philosophy. Only about twenty of these works now survive, and only about a dozen
of these have been published.

Al-Biruni's treatise entitled Maqalid 'ilm al-hay'a (Keys to the Science of

Astronomy) ran to over one thousand pages and contained extensive
developments in on trigonometry. Among many theorems, he produced
a demonstration of the tangent formula, shown below.

From the diagram, O is the

centre of the semicircle,
and AED a right-angled triangle
with a perpendicular
from E to C.
Consequently,
triangles AEC and EDC are
similar.
Angle EOD is twice angle EAD, and angles EAC and DEC are equal.
If the radius of the circle R=1, then EC=sinθ and OC=cosθ
So tan(θ2)=ECAC=sinθ1+cosθ . . . and . . . tan(θ2)=DCEC=1−cosθsinθ
From which he derived the half angle and multiple angle formulae.

While many new aspects of trigonometry were being discovered, the chord, sine, versine and
cosine were developed in the investigation of astronomical problems, and conceived of as
properties of angles at the centre of the heavenly sphere. In contrast, tangent and cotangent
properties were derived from the measurement of shadows of a gnomon and the problems of
telling the time.