Ibn al-Haytham's Geometrical Methods and the Philosophy of Mathematics

This fifth volume of A History of Arabic Sciences and Mathematics is complemented by four preceding volumes which focused on the main chapters of classical mathematics: infinitesimal geometry, theory of conics and its applications, spherical geometry, mathematical astronomy, etc.

This book includes seven main works of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) and of two of his predecessors, Thabit ibn Qurra and al-Sijzi:

• The circle, its transformations and its properties;
• Analysis and synthesis: the founding of analytical art;
• A new mathematical discipline: the Knowns;
• The geometrisation of place;
• Analysis and synthesis: examples of the geometry of triangles;
• Axiomatic method and invention: Thabit ibn Qurra;
• The idea of an Ars Inveniendi: al-Sijzi.

Including extensive commentary from one of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject, this fundamental text is essential reading for historians and mathematicians at the most advanced levels of research.