No label defined (Q5701751)

This paper provides an overview of al-Ṣamarkandī's mathematical treatise entitled \textit{A\b{s}ẖkāl al-Ta'sīs} (or Fundamental Propositions) and of Ḳāḍīzāde's commentary on this work. This treatise, written in the last half of the thirteenth century, consists of what al-Ṣamarkandī seems to consider the most fundamental 35 propositions of Euclid's \textit{Elements}. The commentary is written by Ḳāḍīzāde who died around 1436 and who is known for having written several other commentaries on earlier treatises, notably on Ptolemy's \textit{Almagest}. The author of the paper under review tries to shed light on the criteria that al-Ṣamarkandī used in choosing his propositions. He highlights al-Ṣamarkandī's removal of many (of Euclid's) definitions and the inclusion of new definitions of his own, the removal of some fundamental theorems and most of the construction theorems, the inclusion of two new postulates, and his free use of superposition techniques. He notes in particular that Euclid's fifth postulate is included as a proposition, and comments on the necessarily faulty proofs given by both al-Ṣamarkandī and Ḳāḍīzāde of this postulate. He also provides a table of correspondence showing what each of the 35 propositions of al-Ṣamarkandī corresponds to in Euclid's \textit{Elements}. The author then moves on to describe Ḳāḍīzāde's commentary. He describes how extensive this commentary is and discusses the several additions it contains. In particular, he highlights Ḳāḍīzāde's proofs of two statements that al-Ṣamarkandī had added as postulates and he compares this contribution of Ḳāḍīzāde with an earlier work of al-Abharī. He views Ḳāḍīzāde's commentary as more than just an ordinary collection of marginal annotations, and sees that the care in which it was written makes it a valuable education tool. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1066.01002].