Rare first edition of the Arabic text

Khayyami, Abu'l-Fath 'Umar al- / Woepcke, Franz (ed.). [Masa'il al-jabr wa 'l-maqabala]. L' algèbre d'Omar Alkhayyâmî.

€ 4.500,00

Rare first edition of the Arabic text, with the first translation into French and editor's notes, of Omar Khayyam's "Risala fi'l barahin 'ala masa'il al-jabr wa'l-muqabala" ("Treatise on the Demonstration of Problems concerning Algebra"), an important work on algebra probably completed in 1079 CE.

"As far as is known, al-Khayyami was [...] the first to demonstrate that a cubic equation might have two roots [...] As F. Woepcke, the first editor of the Risala, has shown, al-Khayyami followed a definite system in selecting the curves upon which he based the construction of the roots of all fourteen types of third-degree equations [...] His studies on the geometrical theory of third-degree equations mark al-Khayyami's most successful work" (DSB VII, p. 329).

Edited from the "text of both Paris MSS and of the Leiden MS" (DSB) by the German orientalist, physicist and mathematician Franz Woepcke (1826-64), who began studying Arabic manuscripts at the initiative of Alexander von Humboldt. He qualified as professor at Bonn in Arabic and Astronomy but spent most of his career in Paris.