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Amicable numbers were known to the Pythagoreans, who credited them with many mystical properties.

A general formula by which some of these numbers could be derived was invented circa 850 by Thābit ibn Qurra ( 826-901 ).

Other Arab mathematicians who studied amicable numbers are al-Majriti ( died 1007 ), al-Baghdadi ( 980-1037 ), and al-Fārisī ( 1260 – 1320 ).

The Iranian mathematician Muhammad Baqir Yazdi ( 16th century ) discovered the pair ( 9363584, 9437056 ), though this has often been attributed to Descartes.

Much of the work of Eastern mathematicians in this area has been forgotten.