Abū Sahl al-Kūhī on rising times (Q2741018)

The authors edit and discuss a short paper of al-Kūhī on an astronomical subject (from a unique ms.), outside the usual sphere of his interests. As the introduction shows, the paper was written to show that the first of the equations of Menelaos's theorem in spherical geometry is sufficient to compute rising times and that modern inventions such as the sine theorem are not necessary for the task. The authors' exposition explains the method used by al-Kūhī, that of Ptolemy, and the solution based on the sine theorem.