Page:The Algebra of Mohammed Ben Musa (1831).djvu/13

 The manuscript from whence the text of the present edition is taken—and which is the only copy the existence of which I have as yet been able to trace—is preserved in the Bodleian collection at Oxford. It is, together with three other treatises on Arithmetic and Algebra, contained in the volume marked. Hunt. 214, fol., and bears the date of the transcription A.H. 743 (A.D. 1342). It is written in a plain and legible hand, but unfortunately destitute of most of the diacritical points: a deficiency which has often been very sensibly felt; for though the nature of the subject matter can but seldom leave a doubt as to the general import of a sentence, yet the true reading of some passages, and the precise interpretation of others, remain involved in obscurity. Besides, there occur several omissions of words, and even of entire sentences; and also instances of words or short passages writ-