Kitāb al-Waṣāyā (The Book of Legacies) and the Works of Mathematician Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ b. Aslam

Abstract

Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ b. Aslam al-Miṣrī (fl. 3rd/9th c.) was an important medieval algebraist and successor of Muḥammad b. Mūsā l-Khwārizmī (d. ca. 235/850). His major work on algebra, Kitāb fī l-Jabr wa-l-muqābala, commented on and expanded the work of al-Khwārizmī. Knowledge of Abū Kāmil’s contribution to the history of mathematics is based on three categories of sources: the extant manuscripts of his works, bibliographies such as the Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 380/990) and Kashf al-ẓunūn of Ḥājjī Khalīfa (d. 1067/1657), and commentaries on and quotations from his works by later mathematicians. This study endeavors to clear up some uncertainties regarding Abū Kāmil’s bibliography, correcting views expressed in the history of secondary scholarship on Abū Kāmil and focusing on his work Kitāb al-Waṣāyā (The Book of Legacies).