ABSTRACT
CHAPTER II
THÆBIT IBN QURRA AND HIS WORKS IN INFINITESIMAL MATHEMATICS
2.1.1. Thæbit ibn Qurra: from Îarræn to Baghdad
The little that we know about Thæbit ibn Qurra derives mainly from the biobibliographical details provided on him by al-Nadîm, al-Qif†î and Ibn Abî UÒaybi‘a.1 These accounts are by no means all of equal importance. The
one that we owe to al-Nadîm, invaluable by reason of its date – the end of the tenth century – is, however, very thin. But that of al-Qif†î, thanks to a happy accident, provides everything that posterity knows about Thæbit. Good luck placed in al-Qif†î’s path papers deriving from Thæbit’s family that related more to his work than to his life. Al-Qif†î’s book was the source drawn on by subsequent biobibliographers, for example Ibn Abî UÒaybi‘a. Even Ibn al-‘Ibrî (alias Bar Hebraeus),2 who apparently had at his disposal
Syriac sources that are of no great importance as far as Thæbit goes, adds nothing substantial to al-Qif†î’s account. Should we then content ourselves with that? The paucity of the documentary evidence seems to me to impose the obligation to consult all of it, if only to compare the various versions.
