Al-Ikhtisar min al-Muqalat min Kitab Uqlidis

細節
Al-Ikhtisar min al-Muqalat min Kitab Uqlidis
probably by Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Hasan al-Khazin
holography copy
probably Syria or Iraq, Jumada I AH 502/December 1108 AD

a summary of ten treatises of Euclid's Elements regarding geometry, Arabic manuscript on buff paper, 92ff. plus three flyleaves, each with 15ll. of brown naskh, words overlined in red, copious diagrams, headings in red, (negligible staining, slight damages to folio edges, 4ff. replaced at start), ff.24v. dated Jumada I 502 and 49r. dated midday 4th Ramadan AH 504(?)/30 March 1111 AD, rich brown morocco binding with knotted rope medallion (repaired), plain doublures
folio 7½ x 3.3//in. (18.8 x 9.5cm.)

拍品專文

The title of Euclid's work summarised is not given but the diagrams correspond very closely with those of the Elements. The fact that the present manuscript has ten 'books' also links it to the Elements (which has thirteen parts). A similar ten-part version, Euclidis Elementorum Liber Decimus, was published in Paris in 1551 in Latin. The fourth part of the original has not been summarised in the present copy.
The number of diagrams in each section of the original work is given in each treatise heading.

From the marginal notes and lack of formal ending it is apparent that it is a draft holograph copy. The author's name is not given but it is known that Muhammad al-Khazin wrote a full Arabic rendition of the Elements, entitled Sharh al-Maqalat al-'Ashirah min Kitab al-Usul Uqlidis, and it is reported that he also wrote an abridged version of it. Muhammad al-Khazin was an expert in engineering, maths and astronomy and it is known that he was alive in AH 515/1121-2 AD which would accord with the date of this manuscript.

The earliest known Arabic translations of the Elements are those translated by Al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf b. Matar under the Caliphs Harun al-Rashid (786-809 AD) and al-Ma'mun (813-833 AD). Six books of the 'Ma'muni' translation survive in the Codex Leidensis (399, I), thus being the earliest known extant copy of the Elements in Arabic. The work was apparently next translated by Abu Ya'qub Ishaq b. Hunain b. Ishaq al-'Ibadi (d.910 AD) and improved on by Thabit b. Qurra; two versions of this exist in the Bodelian Library dated 1238 AD and 1260-1 AD. Other versions apparently followed this, but the next extant version known was not written until the 13th century by Nasr al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274 AD).
The earliest known copies in other languages are: a copy in the Bodelian Library dated 898 AD (D'Orville X.), two tenth century versions in the Vatican (no.190) and in the Laurentian Library at Florence (MS.XXVIII,3), an eleventh century copy in the Communal Library at Bologna (nos.18-19) and a twelfth century one in Vienna (Philos. Gr. No.103).

Heath, T.L.: The Thirteen books of Euclid's Elements, Cambridge 1908, Chs.V and VII.
Kahalah, 'Umar Reza: Mu'jam al-Muwalifin, Beirut, Vol. 3, p.138
King, D.: Catalogue of Arabic Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library, Cairo, (Arabic version) p.808