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History of Mathematics in the Islamic World: The Present State of the Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

J. L. Berggren
J. L. Berggren*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
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Extract

In Recent Years, many discoveries in the history of Islamic mathematics have not been reported outside the specialist literature, even though they raise issues of interest to a larger audience. Thus, our aim in writing this survey is to provide to scholars of Islamic culture an account of the major themes and discoveries of the last decade of research on the history of mathematics in the Islamic world. However, the subject of mathematics comprised much more than what a modern mathematician might think of as belonging to mathematics, so our survey is an overview of what may best be called the “mathematical sciences” in Islam; that is, in addition to such topics as arithmetic, algebra, and geometry we will also be interested in mechanics, optics, and mathematical instruments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of Middle East Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , July 1985 , pp. 9 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 1985

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