The earliest Arabic magic squares

My aim here is to shed light on the origins of magic squares in the Islamic world. This question has often been tentatively addressed, but previous studies considered only part of the evidence. The earliest Arabic texts discussing squares (al-Ṭabarī, Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, Brethren of Purity) are examined here together for the first time, as well as the Indian medical sources.