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Berggren, J. L. et Van Brummelen, Glen
« Al-Kūhī’s revision of Book I of Euclid’s “Elements” ». Historia mathematica, 32, 2005, pp. 426-52.
Berggren and van Brummelen present in this paper an edition and translation of Abū Sahl Kūhī’s untitled edition of Book I of the Elements. They refer to the text as Revision of Book I of the Elements since the 10th century scholar altered the content of the book by omitting all constructions and rearranging the order of the remaining theorems. Berggren and van Brummelen interpret this substantial change as resulting from Kūhī’s preference for another work of the ancient geometer, i.e. his Data, and for the use of the two methods of analysis and synthesis. The two historians of mathematic also indicate that the new presentation of Book I by Kūhī contains other novel aspects among which they emphasize his proof for Postulate 4 on the equality of right angles, the use of the parallel postulate much earlier than in Euclid’s Book I and a proof of the Pythagorean theorem different than the one found in the Elements.

