Das Achte Buch zu den Conica des Apollonios von Perge. Rekonstruiert von Ibn al-Haysam. Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Nazim Terzioglu.

Istanbul: Publication of the Mathematical Research Institute, 1974. Leather. Fine. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Original decorative full red leather bound. Gilt traditional style on boards. Large demy 8vo. (22 x 15 cm). Bilingual preface in German and Turkish. [12], [2], p., [49] p. facsimile in Arabic., ills. Das Achte Buch zu den Conica des Apollonios von Perge. Rekonstruiert von Ibn al-Haysam. Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Nazim Terzioglu. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) was born c. 965 to an Arab family in Basra, Iraq, which was at the time part of the Buyid emirate. He held a position with the title vizier in his native Basra, and made a name for himself for his knowledge of applied mathematics. As he claimed to be able to regulate the flooding of the Nile, he was invited to by Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim in order to realise a hydraulic project at Aswan. However, Ibn al-Haytham was forced to concede the impracticability of his project. Upon his return to Cairo, he was given an administrative post. After he proved unable to fulfill this task as well, he contracted the ire of the caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and is said to have been forced into hiding until the caliph's death in 1021, after which his confiscated possessions were returned to him. Legend has it that Alhazen feigned madness and was kept under house arrest during this period. During this time, he wrote his influential Book of Optics. Alhazen continued to live in Cairo, in the neighborhood of the famous University of al-Azhar, and lived from the proceeds of his literary production until his death in c. 1040. Among his students were Sorkhab (Sohrab), a Persian from Semnan, and Abu al-Wafa Mubashir ibn Fatek, an Egyptian prince. Signed and inscribed by Nazim Terzioglu, (1912-1976), was one of the first mathematicians in Turkish academia. One of the contributions of Terzioglu as the director of the Mathematics Research Institute to Turkey's mathematical culture and the history of science was the systematic scan of the Islamic literature relevant to mathematics and the presentation of the information related to conic sections in ancient mathematics to the scientific community. As a result of these efforts, the facsimile of two ancient texts of mathematics originally written in Arabic were realized. The first one is the preface of Mecmuatu'r-risail, the Arabic translation by Beni Musa b. Sakir (died in 873) of Conica, which is the work of Apollonius of Perga (BC 262-190) on the conic sections. This preface, published with the title Das Vorwort des Astronomen Bani Musa b. Sakir, describes how the Apollonius' Conica was acquired by the Islamic world. After that, Terzioglu published the facsimile of the copy of the lost 8th book of Apollonius' Conica which was rewritten by Ibnu'l-Heysem (965-1039) with the help from other sources. In the introduction part of this book with the title Das Achte Buch zu den Conica des Apollonios von Perge, the following information is provided in summary: In ancient mathematics, the interest for conics starts with Menaechmus (BC IV. Century) and reaches the summit with Apollonius of Perga. Apollonius wrote his famous work Conica by processing previous information and adding up his own inventions. The first 7 volumes of this work consisting of 8 volumes in total are known whereas the 8th volume is missing. The Islamic and Western mathematicians working in this field took place in the reconstruction of the 8th volume. The most successful one of these works is that of Edmund Halley's (1656-1742) Apollonii Per-gaei conicorum (Oxoniae, 1710). The 8th book of Conica reconstructed by Ibn el-Heysem is the 4th manuscript with the name Makalatu'l-Hasan b.el-Hasan b.el Heysem fi el-kitabu'l-mahrutat in the Mecmu'atu'r-risail, which is recorded under no. 1796 in Manisa Library. The fact that Ibn el-Heysem completed this work nearly 700 years before Halley is interesting.