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Mathematical Treasure: al-Ṭūsī’s Collection of Arithmetic and Compendium of Treatises

Author(s): 
Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University)

Nasīr al-dīn al-Ṭūsī (1201–1274), who spent his life in the areas of modern-day Iran and Iraq and lived through multiple Mongol invasions, directed the observatory at Maragheh and wrote over 150 mathematical works. His writings were passed down through manuscript copies that are valuable to both scholars and collectors. Below is a leaf from a copy of al-Ṭūsī’s 1265 The Collection of Arithmetic (Jami’ al-hisab bi-‘l-Takht wa-‘l-turab) that is now in Tashkent, Azerbaijan.

Leaf from a copy of The Collection of Arithmetic (Jami’ al-hisab bi-‘l-Takht wa-‘l-turab).

In Anatolia in 1279, a student of Qutb al-Din Shirazi, who in turn had been one of al-Ṭūsī’s students, copied five treatises by al-Ṭūsī, including his commentary on Ptolemy’s Almagest. Images from this manuscript are shown below.

Pages from a student manuscript showing parts of five treatises by al-Tusi.

Pages from a student manuscript showing parts of five treatises by al-Tusi.

Pages from a student manuscript showing parts of five treatises by al-Tusi.

The first image is shown in the 2020 article/blog post on Muslim Heritage by V. F. Medzlumbeyova and A. Babyev, “New Results in the Research on Some Mathematical Works of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.” The manuscript in the other images was auctioned by Christie’s, probably in 2018, but online evidence of it apparently remains only on Oriental Art Auctions.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University), "Mathematical Treasure: al-Ṭūsī’s Collection of Arithmetic and Compendium of Treatises," Convergence (October 2021)