ABU AL-HASAN AHMAD BIN AL-UQLIDISI (THE EUCLIDIAN) (FL. 10TH C.): DUHA AL-'ARAB WA AL-ZANJ FI BAYAN RUQ'A AL-SHATARANJ

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN OR IRAN, DATED SAFAR AH 910/JULY-AUGUST 1504 AD

Details

ABU AL-HASAN AHMAD BIN AL-UQLIDISI (THE EUCLIDIAN) (FL. 10TH C.): DUHA AL-'ARAB WA AL-ZANJ FI BAYAN RUQ'A AL-SHATARANJ
EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN OR IRAN, DATED SAFAR AH 910/JULY-AUGUST 1504 AD
A condensed treatise on the so-called problem of the chess board originally composed for the Caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 908-932 AD), Arabic manuscript on paper, 2ff. plus two fly-leaves, the first folio with 20ll. of black naskh, the second with 5ll. of text and a table illustrating the problem, in modern binding
Folio 7 3/8 x 4 7/8in. (18.8 x 12.5cm.)

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Lot Essay

Al-Uqlidisi's later work composed in 952 AD, Kitab al-fusul fi al-hisab al-hindi (Book of the Sections on Indian Arithmetic) is the first extant Arabic work teaching the Indian decimal position system and its rules for calculation. The last part of the book describes the determination of the geometrical sum of 1 to 64, the so-called problem of the chess board as it appears in the present treatise (Thomas F. Glick ed., Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia, New York, 2005, p.499).

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