Ottoman mathematics

Amili, Baha al-Din Muhammad ibn Husain al-. Khulasat al-Hisab [The Essence of Mathematical Sciences].

€ 18,000.00

Copied less than seventy years after the author's death: an important mathematical work by the Sufi polymath Baha' al-Din Muhammad ibn Husayn al-Amili (1547-1621 CE). Born in present-day Lebanon, Baha' al-Din, a towering figure in Islamic mathematics, emigrated to Safavid Persia with his family as a child, where he completed his studies in Isfahan; his achievements include co-founding the famous School of Isfahan and his status as one of the very few pre-Copernican scholars to suggest the possibility of the rotation of the spherical planet Earth in space.

This Arabic manuscript, enriched with mathematical diagrams and illustrations, is the "Khulasat al-Hisab", or "The Quintessence of Arithmetic". Not merely a textbook, this work distils centuries of mathematical knowledge into an accessible and comprehensive guide. Baha' al-Din's work represents a synthesis of theoretical and applied mathematics. It covers arithmetic, algebra, and measurement, blending practical applications with profound theoretical insights. This text served as the cornerstone of mathematical education in the Islamic world for centuries, replacing earlier works like Ali Kuçu's "al-Risala al-Muhammadiyya fi l-Hisab".

This copy, in addition to marginal notes and commentaries, has numerous leaves tipped in with further notes and diagrams, supplementing the original text.