Júlio César de Mello e Souza
Encyclopedia
Júlio César de Mello e Souza (Rio de Janeiro
, May 6, 1895 – Recife
, June 18, 1974), was a Brazil
ian writer and mathematics
professor. He is well known in Brazil and abroad by his books on recreational mathematics
, most of them published under the pen names of Malba Tahan
and Breno de Alencar Bianco.
He has been called by one biographer "the only mathematics teacher who ever became as famous as a soccer player". He wrote 69 books of tales and 51 of mathematics and other subjects, which by 1995 had sold over two million books. His most famous work, The Man Who Counted
, saw its 54th printing in 2001.
Júlio César's most popular books, including The Man Who Counted, are collections of mathematical problems, puzzles, and curiosities, embedded in tales inspired by the Arabian Nights. He thoroughly researched his subject matters — not only the mathematics, but also the history, geography, and culture of the Islamic Empire
which was the backdrop and connecting thread of his books. Yet Júlio César's travels outside Brazil were limited to short visits to Buenos Aires
, Montevideo
, and Lisbon
: he never set foot in the deserts and cities which he so vividly described in his book.
Júlio César was very critical of the educational methods used in Brazilian classrooms, especially for mathematics. "The mathematics teacher is a sadist," he claimed, "who loves to make everything as complicated as possible." In education, he was decades ahead of his time, and today his proposals are still more praised than implemented.
For his books, Júlio César received a prize by the prestigious Brazilian Literary Academy
and was made a member of the Pernambuco Literary Academy
. The Malba Tahan Institute was found in 2004 at Queluz to preserve his legacy. The State Legislature of Rio de Janeiro determined that his birthday, May 6, be commemorated as the Mathematician's Day.
. His father, João de Deus de Mello e Souza, was a civil servant with limited salary and eight (some reports say nine) children to support; so one thing that young Júlio César surely learned to count well were the pennies of his scant allowance.
In 1905 he was sent with his elder brother João Batista to Rio de Janeiro
, to attend a preparatory school for a prestigious high school, the Colégio Militar do Rio de Janeiro. He was admitted to the Colégio in 1906, which he left in 1909 for the Colégio Pedro II.
Ironically, the kid who would become the most famous Brazilian mathematician of all time was a rather poor student himself. In a 1905 letter to their parents, João Batista tells that little Júlio "is bad at writing, and a failure in mathematics". His report card at the Colégio Pedro II in Rio de Janeiro records that he once failed an Algebra exam, and barely passed one on Arithmetics. He later attributed these results to the teaching practices of the time, based on "the detestable method of salivation".
However, he did give signs of his originality and non-conventionalism in other ways. As a kid in Queluz he used to keep frog
s as pets, and at one point he had some 50 animals in his yard. One of them, nicknamed "Monsignor", would follow him through the town. As a grown up, he kept up with this hobby after a fashion, by assembling a large collection of frog statuettes.
from Chile
in exchange for an essay on the theme of "Hope", the homework for the next day. According to his memoirs, Júlio was called late at night by other anxious students, and by the next morning he had provided four different essays on "Hope", at 400 réis
the piece. He kept on this activity for the rest of the year, writing on "Hate", "Nostalgia", and whatever else the teacher demanded.
Many years later he met his teacher, Silva Ramos, and told him of those dubious activities. When Silva Ramos introduced him jokingly to Raul Pederneiras as a "merchant of Hope and Hate", he got from the man a prophetic advice: "Forget Hate, and go on selling Hope. Take up this poetic profession, Merchant of Hope: since that business is profitable for the buyer, and even more so for the seller."
In 1918, at the age of 23, Júlio César offered five of his tales to the editor of the newspaper O Imparcial, where he worked; but his boss did not even look at them. Undaunted, Júlio picked up the manuscripts and brought them back a few days later, this time pretending that they were translations of the work of a certain "R. S. Slade," supposedly the rage in New York City
. The first of those tales, The Jew's Revenge, was published in the front page of the next issue of the newspaper; and the rest followed suit.
This experience convinced Júlio to assume a "foreign" pen name. He chose an Arabian identity — because, as he declared in an interview, the Arabs were unsurpassed in the art of storytelling. For the next seven years he prepared himself by studying Arabic and reading all he could on Islamic culture. In 1925, he sold the idea of a series of tales on Oriental themes to Irineu Marinho, editor of the newspaper A Noite (which would later become a huge Brazilian media conglomerate, the Organizações Globo
). His stories, published in the column Contos de Malba Tahan ("Tales of Malba Tahan"), were attributed to a fictitious Arabian scholar of that name, and ostensibly translated by an equally fictitious "Professor Breno Alencar Bianco".
Whether for the catchy pseudonym, or (more likely) for the author's lively style and imagination, his books were a resounding success, and he became a national celebrity. Even though his identity soon was known to everybody, he continued to use the name of Malba Tahan in his public life. He had a rubber stamp made with that name in Arabic script, which he used when grading his student's homework; and, in 1952 — by special permission of Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas
— he added "Malba Tahan" to his own legal name.
Júlio César graduated as an elementary schoolteacher at the Escola Normal do Distrito federal in Rio de Janeiro, and as a civil engineer
at the Escola Politecnica in 1913. he started lecturing as a substitute teacher at the Colégio Pedro II, and later became a teacher at the Escola Normal.
He began teaching history
, geography
and physics
, and only later moved to mathematics
.
In time he became Chair at the Colégio Pedro II, at the Instituto de Educação, at the teacher's school of the Universidade do Brasil (which would became the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and at the National School of Education, where he got the title of Professor Emeritus.
Besides his classes at the teacher's school, he delivered over 2000 lectures on the teaching of mathematics, and wrote many books on the subject. In all his works Júlio defended the use of games as teaching aids, and the replacement of chalk-and-blackboard lectures by "mathematics laboratories" where students could engage in creative activities, self-study, and object manipulation — a proposal that was seen as heretical at the time.
In the Brazilian 0-to-10 grading system, Júlio would never give a zero grade. "Why give a zero, when there are so many numbers to choose from?" he used to say. He would give to the brightest students the task of teaching the weaker ones: "by the end of the first semester, they would all be above the pass line." he claimed.
While his methods and style charmed all his students, he had the opposition of many of his colleagues, who found his approach of connecting mathematics to everyday life as demeaning.
Julio César also spread his message through radio programmes of several stations in Rio de Janeiro, including the Rádio Nacional
, Radio Clube, and Rádio Mayrink Veiga, as well as in television
, at the TV Tupi of Rio and the TV Cultura
of São Paulo.
, who had historically been banned and confined in leper colonies. For over 10 years he edited the magazine Damião
, which preached the end of the prejudice and re-incorporation of former inmates into the society. In his testament
, he left a message to the Hanseniacs, to be read at his funeral.
, at the age of 79, to an audience of future teachers. It was about the art of storytelling. Back to his hotel room he apparently suffered a heart attack
and expired.
He had left instructions for his funeral. He did not want people to wear black: quoting a song by Noel Rosa
, he explained that "Black clothes are vanities/of those who enjoy fancy dress;/I only wish for your memories/and memories are colorless".
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, May 6, 1895 – Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
, June 18, 1974), was a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian writer and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
professor. He is well known in Brazil and abroad by his books on recreational mathematics
Recreational mathematics
Recreational mathematics is an umbrella term, referring to mathematical puzzles and mathematical games.Not all problems in this field require a knowledge of advanced mathematics, and thus, recreational mathematics often attracts the curiosity of non-mathematicians, and inspires their further study...
, most of them published under the pen names of Malba Tahan
Malba Tahan
Malba Tahan, full name Ali Yezzid Izz-Edin ibn-Salim Hanak Malba Tahan, was a fictitious Persian scholar. He was the creation and frequent pen name of Brazilian author Júlio César de Mello e Souza.-Biography:...
and Breno de Alencar Bianco.
He has been called by one biographer "the only mathematics teacher who ever became as famous as a soccer player". He wrote 69 books of tales and 51 of mathematics and other subjects, which by 1995 had sold over two million books. His most famous work, The Man Who Counted
The Man Who Counted
The Man Who Counted is a book on recreational mathematics and curious word problems by Brazilian writer Júlio César de Mello e Souza, published under the pen name Malba Tahan...
, saw its 54th printing in 2001.
Júlio César's most popular books, including The Man Who Counted, are collections of mathematical problems, puzzles, and curiosities, embedded in tales inspired by the Arabian Nights. He thoroughly researched his subject matters — not only the mathematics, but also the history, geography, and culture of the Islamic Empire
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
which was the backdrop and connecting thread of his books. Yet Júlio César's travels outside Brazil were limited to short visits to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, and Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
: he never set foot in the deserts and cities which he so vividly described in his book.
Júlio César was very critical of the educational methods used in Brazilian classrooms, especially for mathematics. "The mathematics teacher is a sadist," he claimed, "who loves to make everything as complicated as possible." In education, he was decades ahead of his time, and today his proposals are still more praised than implemented.
For his books, Júlio César received a prize by the prestigious Brazilian Literary Academy
Academia Brasileira de Letras
Academia Brasileira de Letras is a Brazilian literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century by a group of 40 writers and poets inspired by the Académie Française. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its foundation on December 15, 1896, with the statutes being...
and was made a member of the Pernambuco Literary Academy
Academia Pernambucana de Letras
The Academia Pernambucana de Letras is a literary association established in the manner of the French Academy of Letters, founded in January 26 of 1901 in Recife by Carneiro Vilela and other pernambucan writers of time, with a total of 20 seats...
. The Malba Tahan Institute was found in 2004 at Queluz to preserve his legacy. The State Legislature of Rio de Janeiro determined that his birthday, May 6, be commemorated as the Mathematician's Day.
Early life
Júlio César was born in Rio de Janeiro but spent most of his childhood in Queluz, a small rural town in the State of São PauloSão Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...
. His father, João de Deus de Mello e Souza, was a civil servant with limited salary and eight (some reports say nine) children to support; so one thing that young Júlio César surely learned to count well were the pennies of his scant allowance.
In 1905 he was sent with his elder brother João Batista to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, to attend a preparatory school for a prestigious high school, the Colégio Militar do Rio de Janeiro. He was admitted to the Colégio in 1906, which he left in 1909 for the Colégio Pedro II.
Ironically, the kid who would become the most famous Brazilian mathematician of all time was a rather poor student himself. In a 1905 letter to their parents, João Batista tells that little Júlio "is bad at writing, and a failure in mathematics". His report card at the Colégio Pedro II in Rio de Janeiro records that he once failed an Algebra exam, and barely passed one on Arithmetics. He later attributed these results to the teaching practices of the time, based on "the detestable method of salivation".
However, he did give signs of his originality and non-conventionalism in other ways. As a kid in Queluz he used to keep frog
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
s as pets, and at one point he had some 50 animals in his yard. One of them, nicknamed "Monsignor", would follow him through the town. As a grown up, he kept up with this hobby after a fashion, by assembling a large collection of frog statuettes.
A budding writer
His career as a writer began while he was still in high school, when one of his classmates offered him a brand-new pen and a postage stampPostage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
from Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
in exchange for an essay on the theme of "Hope", the homework for the next day. According to his memoirs, Júlio was called late at night by other anxious students, and by the next morning he had provided four different essays on "Hope", at 400 réis
Brazilian real
The real is the present-day currency of Brazil. Its sign is R$ and its ISO code is BRL. It is subdivided into 100 centavos ....
the piece. He kept on this activity for the rest of the year, writing on "Hate", "Nostalgia", and whatever else the teacher demanded.
Many years later he met his teacher, Silva Ramos, and told him of those dubious activities. When Silva Ramos introduced him jokingly to Raul Pederneiras as a "merchant of Hope and Hate", he got from the man a prophetic advice: "Forget Hate, and go on selling Hope. Take up this poetic profession, Merchant of Hope: since that business is profitable for the buyer, and even more so for the seller."
It is all in the name
Júlio began to write tales on his own while still in his teens, but did not impress the critics in his family. His brother João Batista recalls that Júlio's tales were chock full of superfluous characters with bizarre names like "Mardukbarian" or "Protocholóski".In 1918, at the age of 23, Júlio César offered five of his tales to the editor of the newspaper O Imparcial, where he worked; but his boss did not even look at them. Undaunted, Júlio picked up the manuscripts and brought them back a few days later, this time pretending that they were translations of the work of a certain "R. S. Slade," supposedly the rage in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The first of those tales, The Jew's Revenge, was published in the front page of the next issue of the newspaper; and the rest followed suit.
This experience convinced Júlio to assume a "foreign" pen name. He chose an Arabian identity — because, as he declared in an interview, the Arabs were unsurpassed in the art of storytelling. For the next seven years he prepared himself by studying Arabic and reading all he could on Islamic culture. In 1925, he sold the idea of a series of tales on Oriental themes to Irineu Marinho, editor of the newspaper A Noite (which would later become a huge Brazilian media conglomerate, the Organizações Globo
Organizações Globo
Organizações Globo is the largest media conglomerate of South America, founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1925 by Irineu Marinho. It also owns companies on the food industry and the real estate and financial markets....
). His stories, published in the column Contos de Malba Tahan ("Tales of Malba Tahan"), were attributed to a fictitious Arabian scholar of that name, and ostensibly translated by an equally fictitious "Professor Breno Alencar Bianco".
Whether for the catchy pseudonym, or (more likely) for the author's lively style and imagination, his books were a resounding success, and he became a national celebrity. Even though his identity soon was known to everybody, he continued to use the name of Malba Tahan in his public life. He had a rubber stamp made with that name in Arabic script, which he used when grading his student's homework; and, in 1952 — by special permission of Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas served as President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Vargas led Brazil for 18 years, the most for any President, and second in Brazilian history to Emperor Pedro II...
— he added "Malba Tahan" to his own legal name.
Teaching career
Before being a teacher, he worked for a time as general assistant at the National Library.Júlio César graduated as an elementary schoolteacher at the Escola Normal do Distrito federal in Rio de Janeiro, and as a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
at the Escola Politecnica in 1913. he started lecturing as a substitute teacher at the Colégio Pedro II, and later became a teacher at the Escola Normal.
He began teaching history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, and only later moved to mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
.
In time he became Chair at the Colégio Pedro II, at the Instituto de Educação, at the teacher's school of the Universidade do Brasil (which would became the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and at the National School of Education, where he got the title of Professor Emeritus.
Besides his classes at the teacher's school, he delivered over 2000 lectures on the teaching of mathematics, and wrote many books on the subject. In all his works Júlio defended the use of games as teaching aids, and the replacement of chalk-and-blackboard lectures by "mathematics laboratories" where students could engage in creative activities, self-study, and object manipulation — a proposal that was seen as heretical at the time.
In the Brazilian 0-to-10 grading system, Júlio would never give a zero grade. "Why give a zero, when there are so many numbers to choose from?" he used to say. He would give to the brightest students the task of teaching the weaker ones: "by the end of the first semester, they would all be above the pass line." he claimed.
While his methods and style charmed all his students, he had the opposition of many of his colleagues, who found his approach of connecting mathematics to everyday life as demeaning.
Julio César also spread his message through radio programmes of several stations in Rio de Janeiro, including the Rádio Nacional
Rádio Nacional
-Rádio Nacional broadcasters:*Rádio Nacional Brasília - Brasília - 980 kHz*Rádio Nacional FM Brasília - Brasília - 96.1 MHz*Rádio Nacional Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro - 1130 kHz*Rádio MEC AM Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro - 800Kz...
, Radio Clube, and Rádio Mayrink Veiga, as well as in television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, at the TV Tupi of Rio and the TV Cultura
TV Cultura
TV Cultura is Brazilian television network headquartered in São Paulo and a part of Fundação Padre Anchieta. It focuses on cultural subjects but also has sports as entertainment options.- History :...
of São Paulo.
Other activities
Júlio was an energetic campaigner for the cause of the Hanseniacs (lepers)Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
, who had historically been banned and confined in leper colonies. For over 10 years he edited the magazine Damião
Damião
Damião is the Portuguese version of the general European name Damian, from the Latin Damianus and, in turn, from the Greek Δαμιανος Damianos which was derived from the Greek word δαμαω damao meaning "to tame"...
, which preached the end of the prejudice and re-incorporation of former inmates into the society. In his testament
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
, he left a message to the Hanseniacs, to be read at his funeral.
A teacher to the end
Júlio César's last public lecture was delivered in RecifeRecife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
, at the age of 79, to an audience of future teachers. It was about the art of storytelling. Back to his hotel room he apparently suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
and expired.
He had left instructions for his funeral. He did not want people to wear black: quoting a song by Noel Rosa
Noel Rosa
Noel de Medeiros Rosa was a Brazilian songwriter, singer, and guitar/banjo player. One of the greatest names in Brazilian popular music, Noel gave a new twist to samba, combining its Afro-Brazilian roots with a more urban, witty language and making it a vehicle for ironic social commentary.Noel...
, he explained that "Black clothes are vanities/of those who enjoy fancy dress;/I only wish for your memories/and memories are colorless".
Books
- Aventuras do Rei Baribê, "Adventures of King Baribê"
- A Caixa do Futuro, "The Box of the Future"
- Céu de Alá, "Allah's Heaven"
- A Sombra do Arco-Íris, "The Rainbow's Shadow" (the author's favorite)
- O Homem que CalculavaThe Man Who CountedThe Man Who Counted is a book on recreational mathematics and curious word problems by Brazilian writer Júlio César de Mello e Souza, published under the pen name Malba Tahan...
, "The Man Who Counted", 224p. (1949) - Lendas do Céu e da Terra, "Legends of Heaven and Earth"
- Lendas do Deserto, "Legends of the Desert"
- Lendas do Oásis, "Legends of the Oasis"
- Lendas do Povo de Deus, "Legends of God's People"
- Maktub!, "It is Written!"
- Matemática Divertida e Curiosa, "Enjoyable and Curious Mathematics", 158p., ISBN 91-0560.
- Os Melhores Contos, "The Best Tales"
- Meu Anel de Sete Pedras, "My Ring of Seven Stones"
- Mil Histórias Sem Fim, "A Thousand Unending Tales" (2 volumes)
- Minha Vida Querida, "My Dear Life"
- Novas Lendas Orientais, "New Oriental Legends"
- Salim, o Mágico, "Salim, the Magician"
- Acordaram-me de Madrugada, "They Woke Me Up In the Middle of the Night" (memoirs).
External links
- A Biography in English by Andréa Estevão, at the Brazil-Arab News Agency.
- A biography based on article by Luiza Villamea (in Portuguese).
- Another biography (in Portuguese).
- And another (in Portuguese).