Abu l'Hasan Ali ibn Ahmad al-Nasawi

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Abu l'Hasan Ali ibn Ahmad al-Nasawi

1010?-1075?

Arab mathematician who wrote a summary of Euclid's Elements. Al-Nasawi, who worked variously for a prince in the Buyid dynasty and for a Shi'ite leader in Baghdad, composed numerous short works. The best known of these is his summary of the Elements, which he claimed to have written in order to provide those studying Ptolemy's Almagest with the necessary background in geometry. Al-Nasawi's work was largely forgotten until its rediscovery in Europe in 1863.

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Abu l'Hasan Ali ibn Ahmad al-Nasawi

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