An Essay on the Attribution of the Book Titled “The Book about What the Craftsman Needs of Geometrical Constructions”

Abstract

This research is aiming to study a rare manuscript of al-Fārābī called Kitāb al-Ḥiyal al-Rūḥānīyah wa’al-Asrār al-Tabī‘īyah fī Daqā’iq al-Ashkhal al-Handasīyah in order to proof that this manuscript is merely a copy of The work of Abu al-Wafa’ Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Buzjani (940-998) with a slightly different title: Kitab fima Yahtaj ilayh al-Sani’ mina al-A’mal al-Handasiyah (The book about what the craftsman needs of geometrical constructions). So it seems that this is a work by al-Farabi, and whatever the exact authorship we found out that it merits further study. The treatise of al-Farabi contains the foreword and 10 books (maqalat). All 10 books are included as a whole into Abu al-Wafâ’s treatise: The first book (makala) coincides with the second half of the II chapter of Abu al-Wafâ from 9 proposition to the end, the II-IX books entirely coincide with III-X chapters of Abu al-Wafâ, The X book coincides with the first half of the XI chapter of Abu al-Wafâ. So we find that it resembles the work of Abu al-Wafa’ al-Buzjani and we tried to proof our view with some proofs.