Lost and Embedded Manuscripts in the Works of Abū-Sahl al-Qūhī
| Prof. J.L. Berggren |
| A study of the
manuscripts of Abu Sahl al-Kuhi (4/10 c.) presents a number of cases of
‘lost’ and ‘embedded’ manuscripts. Although Omar Khayyam described him as
one of the ‘distinguished mathematicians of Iraq, and some thirty of his
works survive, a number of important works have, apparently, vanished. These
are all, somehow, related to the work of Archimedes and among them are a
major work on centers of gravity, a work on the division of a sphere by
planes, another on the pseudo-Archimedean Lemmata, and a fourth on cutting a
straight line into segments whose ratios are equal to the ratios of certain
areas. Although they are lost, we may obtain clues as to the contents of
these works from fragments of them embedded in extant manuscripts. Our talk
will discuss these works, their significance, and the ways in which they are
embedded in other works |
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