Kitab Al Wasaya Bil-Judhur (The Book of Legacies by Roots) and the Works of Abu Kamil Shuja’a Bin Aslem

Abstract

Abu Kamil Shuja’a bin Aslam Al Misri (9th century), the reckoner from Egypt was a prominent medieval algebraist. After Al Khwarizmi. Abu Kamil wrote a book " The book of Algebra”, Kitab fi Al Gabr Wa Al Muqabala where he acknowledged the work of Al Khwarizmi, but added to it and addressed the cases that were left out by Al Khwarizmi such as using and accepting irrational numbers as solutions and coefficients of equations. This study aims at two main new discoveries about Abu Kamil. Firstly, we will introduce, for the first time, to the world and to the community of mathematics historians in particular, and to the history of science scholars in general, the long assumed lost book of Abu Kamil: Kitab Al Wasaya Bi Al Judhur (The Book of Legacies by Roots). Secondly, we will explore more of Abu Kamil’s biography by searching un-edited and un-printed ancient Arabic manuscripts which also revealed new discoveries. Additionally, this study will explore the contributions of Abu Kamil in the Middle Eastern and wider mathematical context and his influence on mathematicians who came after him. Lastly the study will contain a classroom/teaching activity based on the text to show that this material might be of interest to middle or high-school-aged students. We will also be putting some of the algebra that students learn into context - showing them how showing them how to convert ‘rhetorical’ mathematics into notations.