an-Nairizi

an-Nairizi , completelyأبو العباس الفضل بن حاتم النيريزي / Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Faḍl b. Ḥātim an-Nayrīzī , also al-Nayrizi, Latinized Anaritius, Nazirius, (* around 865 possibly in Nayriz in Iran ; † around 922 possibly in Baghdad ) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer and commentator on the first 10 books of Euclid's elements .

Little is known about his life. According to his name, he may have been born in Nayriz, a small town southeast of Shiraz . Since he dedicated some of his works to the caliph al-Mu'tadid bi-'llah (who ruled from 892 to 902), he probably later lived in Baghdad , which was also a cultural center. The caliph and his successor were seen as promoters of culture.

In Ibn an-Nadīm's Fihrist he is mentioned as an important astronomer and eight works are ascribed to him. The Egyptian astronomer Ibn Yunus (died 1009) praised him as a good mathematician, but criticized him on some points as an astronomer.

He edited the (second) translation of the elements into Arabic by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar from the 8th century with commentary. His Euclid Commentary was translated into Latin by Gerhard von Cremona , published by Maximilian Curtze in 1899 by Teubner as a supplement to the Euclid edition by Heiberg and Heinrich Menge . Curtze used a manuscript in Cracow. There is also the not quite preserved Arabic text in a manuscript in Leiden (Codex Leidensis 399).

He also wrote comments on Claudius Ptolemy , Almagest and Tetrabiblos, which have not survived, and two astronomical manuals (tables for calculating the positions of the planets), also not preserved. Al-Biruni knew his Almagest commentary and one of the astronomical manuals. One of the manuals is said to have been based on the Indian Sindhind, the smaller manual may have been based on the Almagest. The Almagest Commentary must have been one of the earliest Arabic commentaries on the Almagest. He also wrote a book on determining the direction of Mecca (using a construction equivalent to the tangent function, but already used by Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi ). What has been preserved is a treatise on proofs of the parallel postulate by Euclid, in which he also presents an attempt at proof by a mathematician named Aghanis, who, according to Sabra, is probably the Athenian Agapius, philosopher and student of Proclus and Marinus . It came from a then still known Euclid commentary by Simplikios . The proof of Aghanis was influential in later Arab attempts to prove the postulate. He had already suggested al-Abbas ibn Said al-Jawhari's attempt to prove it and Thabit ibn Qurra also knew him.

He also wrote a book on the astrolabe . A treatise on the determination of the hour lines in a spherical sundial has also been preserved .

literature

• RO Besthorn, JL Heiberg (editor): Codex Leidensis 399, I. Euclidis Elementa ex interpretatione al-Hajjajii cum commentariis al-Narizii, three parts, Copenhagen 1893–1932
• Maximilian Curtze (editor): Anaritii in decem libros priores Elementorum Euclidis commentarii… in codice Cracoviensi 569 servata, Teubner, Leipzig 1899
• Abdelhamid I. Sabra in Dictionary of Scientific Biography , Online
• Gregg DeYoung in Thomas Hockey The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers , Springer Verlag 2007, Online

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  An-Nairizi. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ McTutor, see web links. Sabra states around 897
2. ↑ Al-Haggag wrote two
3. ^ German translation by Karl Schoy in reports of the meetings of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Math-Phys. Class 1922, 55-68
4. ↑ Heiberg identified him with Geminus (Greek Geminos)
5. ↑ In addition Hugo Seemann, T. Mittelberger: The spherical astrolabe according to the communications of Alfonso X. of Castile and the existing Arabic sources, treatises on the history of natural sciences and medicine, Volume 8, 1925, pp. 32-40