Al-Kafi fi’l Hisab. (Genugendes Uber Arithmetik).

DESCRIPTION

4to. 317 pp., Arabic text, 1 portrait, edited with a comment by Sami Chalhoub, publisher’s original wrappers, lightly rubbed at spine extremities, otherwise copy inside clean and in very good condition, Institute for The History of Arabic Science. Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn al Ḥassan al-Karajī (c. 953 – c. 1029) was a 10th- century mathematician and engineer who flourished at Baghdad. His three principal surviving works are mathematical: Al-Badi' fi'l-Hisab (Wonderful on calculation), Al-Fakhri fi'l-Jabr wa'l-Muqabala (Glorious on algebra), and Al-Kafi fi'l-Hisab (Sufficient on calculation). Al-Karaji wrote on mathematics and engineering. Some consider him to be merely reworking the ideas of others (he was influenced by Diophantus) but most regard him as more original, in particular for the beginnings of freeing algebra from geometry. Among historians, his most widely studied work is his algebra book al-Fakhri fi al-Jabr wa al-Muqabala, which survives from the medieval era in at least four copies.