Abstract:
This volume provides an unique primary source on the history and philosophy of mathematics and the exact sciences in the mediaeval Arab world. The second of five comprehensive volumes, this book offers a detailed exploration of Arabic mathematics in the eleventh century as embodied in the legacy of the celebrated polymath al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham. Extensive analyses and annotations from the eminent scholar, Roshdi Rashed, support a number of key Arabic texts from Ibn al-Haytham’s treatises in infinitesimal mathematics, translated here into English for the first time. Rashed shows how Ibn al-Haytham’s works demonstrate a remarkable mathematical competence in mathematical subjects like the quadrature of the circle and of lunes, the calculation of the volumes of paraboloids, the problem of isoperimetric plane figures and solid figures with equal surface areas, along with the extraction of square and cubic roots.