Page:The Algebra of Mohammed Ben Musa (1831).djvu/212



I am uncertain whether my translation of the definition which gives of mensuration be correct. Though the diacritical points are partly wanting in the manuscript, there can, I believe, be no doubt as to the reading of the passage.

I have simply translated the words اهل الهندسة by “geometricians,” though from the manner in which here uses that expression it would appear that be took it in a more specific sense.

Firuzabadi (Kamus, p. 814, ed. Calcutt.) says that the word handasah (الهَنْدَسَةُ) is originally Persian, and that it signifies “the determining by measurement where canals for water shall be dug.”

The Persians themselves assign yet another meaning to the word هندسه hindisah, as they pronounce it: they use it in the sense of decimal notation of numerals. It is a fact well known, and admitted by the Arabs