The Hindu-Arabic numerals / by David Eugene Smith and Louis Charles Karpinski.

  • David Eugene Smith
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Hindu-Arabic numerals / by David Eugene Smith and Louis Charles Karpinski. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    learning and one to whom the world is much indebted for its present knowledge of algebra1 and of arithmetic. Of him there will often be occasion to speak ; and in the arithmetic which he wrote, and of which Adelhard of Bath2 (c. 1130) may have made the translation or para- phrase,3 he stated distinctly that the numerals were due to the Hindus.4 This is as plainly asserted by later Arab also Verhandlungen des 5. Congresses der Orientalisten, Berlin, 1882, Vol. II, p. 19; W. Spitta-Bey in the Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgen- land. Gesellschaft, Yol. XXXIII, p. 224; Steinschneider in the Zeit- schrift der deutschen Morgenland. Gesellschaft, Yol. L, p. 214; Treutlein in the Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Vol. I, p. 5; Suter, “ Die Mathematiker unci Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke,” Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik,Yo\. X, Leipzig, 1900, p. 10, and “Nachtrage,” in Vol. XIV, p. 158; Cantor, Geschichte der Mathe- matik, Vol. I, 3ded.,pp. 712-733 etc.; F.Woepcke in Propagation, p.489. So recently has he become known that Heilbronner, writing in 1742, merely mentions him as “ Ben-Musa, inter Arabes Celebris Geometra, scripsit de figuris planis & sphericis.” [Uistoria matheseos universce, Leipzig, 1742, p. 438.] In this work most of the Arabic names will be transliterated sub- stantially as laid down by Suter in his work Die Mathematiker etc., except where this violates English pronunciation. The scheme of pro- nunciation of oriental names is set forth in the preface. 1 Our word algebra is from the title of one of his works, Al-jabr wa'l- muqabalah, Completion and Comparison. The work was translated into English by F. Rosen, London, 1831, and treated in L'Algblyre d'al- Khdrizmi et les mAthodes indienne et grecque, L£on Rodet, Paris, 1878, extract from the Journal Asiatique. For the derivation of the word algebra, see Cossali, Scritti Inediti, pp. 381-383, Rome, 1857; Leo- nardo’s Liber Abbaci (1202), p. 410, Rome, 1857 ; both published by B. Boncompagni. “Almuchabala” also was used as a name for algebra. 2 This learned scholar, teacher of O’Creat who wrote the Uelceph (uPrologus N. Ocreati in Uelceph ad Adelardum Batensem magistrum mum), studied in Toledo, learned Arabic, traveled as far east as Egypt, and brought from the Levant numerous manuscripts for study and translation. See Henry in the Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Vol. Ill, p. 131; Woepcke in Propagation, p. 518. 3 The title is Algoritmi de numero Indorum. That he did not make this translation is asserted by Enestroin in the Bibliotheca Mathematica, Vol. I (3), p. 520. 4 Thus he speaks “de numero indorum per .IX. literas,” and pro- ceeds : “ Dixit algoritmi: Cum uidissem yndos constituisse .IX. literas
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