Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar

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Al-Hajjaj ibn Yūsuf ibn Matar ( Arabic الحجاج بن يوسف بن مطر, DMG al-Ḥaǧǧāǧ b. Yūsuf b. Maṭar ; * before 809; † after 813) was an Arabic mathematician who worked in Baghdad between 786 and 833 and is the earliest translator of the elements of Euclid from Greek into Arabic.

The translation was made (according to the Fihrist and in the information in the preface to the manuscript in Leiden) on behalf of Yahya ibn Khalid ibn Barmak, the visor of the caliph Hārūn ar-Rashīd (ruled 786 to 809) of Baghdad (it was therefore called Haruni ), a second improved translation ( Ma'muni ) he made for the caliph al-Ma'mūn (ruled 813 until his death in 833). This results in the impact data of al-Hajjajj. From the second translation, six books of the elements have been preserved in a Codex in Leiden (Codex Leidensis 399). The original Greek texts for the translation were acquired from Byzantium. Another later Arabic translation of the elements is from Ishaq ibn Hunayn (died 910), used by Thabit ibn Qurra for his edition, and from Nasir ad-Din at-Tusi (died 1274).

He also translated the 827/828 Almagest of Claudius Ptolemy into Arabic (also this was later re-translated by Ishaq ibn Hunayn and Thabit ibn Qurra translation of revised). It is the first surviving Arabic translation. He undertook the translation with a Byzantine named Elias. It is preserved in a complete edition in Leiden (Cod. Or. 680) and an incomplete edition in the British Library (Add 7474)

His edition of the Elements formed the basis of the first translation into Latin in the 12th century by Adelard of Bath . The edition by Gerhard of Cremona , on the other hand, uses the edition of Thabit ibn Qurra, using an edition that also contained material from al-Hajjaj's translation.

literature

  • Hubert LL Busard : The first translation of Euclid's Elements commonly ascribed to Adelard of Bath. Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto 1983
  • Johan Ludvig Heiberg : Codex Leidensis 399, I. Euclidis Elementa ex interpretatione al-Hajjajii cum commentariis al-Narizii . three parts, Copenhagen 1893–1932
  • Thomas Heath : The thirteen books of Euclids elements. Cambridge 1908 (Reprinted by Dover), Volume 1, p. 76
  • Sonja Brentje's text witnesses and hypotheses on the Arabic Euclid in the tradition of al-Haggag b. Yusuf b. Matar (between 786 and 833) , Archives Hist. Exact Sciences, Vol. 47, 1994, pp. 53-92

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Kunitzsch: Ptolemy and the Astronomy: The Almagest , Akademie Aktuell, Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 2013, Issue 3, p. 23, pdf
  2. ↑ Paul Kunitzsch (editor, translator): The star catalog of the Almagest. The Arab-Medieval Tradition. I. The Arabic translations, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1986, p. 3
personal data
SURNAME Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar, al-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar, al-; Hajjaj ibn Yūsuf ibn Matar, al-; الحجاج بن يوسف بن مطر (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Arabic mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH before 809
DATE OF DEATH after 813