al-Risāla al-Muhītīyya: a summary (Q710348)

This article provides an annotated English table of contents and summary of \textit{The Treatise on the Circumference} (1424), in which Ghiyāth al-Dīn Jamshīd al-Kāshī, the later director of the Samarkand observatory, determined \(\pi\) to an accuracy of 16 decimals. Al-Kāshī's treatise has only been translated into German by \textit{P. Luckey} [``Der Lehrbrief über den Kreisumfang (ar-risāla al muḥīṭīya) von Ǧamšīd B. Mas'ūd Al-Kāšī'', Abh. Deutsch. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, Math.-naturw. Kl. 1950, No.6, 95 S. (1953; Zbl 0050.00104)] and into Russian by \textit{B. A. Rosenfeld} and \textit{A. P. Yushkevich} [Al-Kashi. Klyuch arifmetiki. Traktat ob okruzhnosti, Moscow (1956)]. The author relies to a large extent on a Persian summary published by A. Qurbani (\textit{Kāshānī nāmeh}, Tehran 1971; revised edition 1989) on the basis of the above-mentioned translations and the autograph manuscript in the Holy Shrine Library in Meshhed.