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Page 71, line 8, 9.
The author says, that the capital must be divided into 219320 parts: this I considered faulty, and altered it in my translation into 964080, to make it agree with the computation furnished in the note. But having recently had an opportunity of re-examining the Oxford manuscript, I perceive from the copious marginal notes appended to this passage, that even among the Arabian readers considerable variety of opinion must have existed as to the common denominator, by means of which the several shares of the capital in this case may be expressed.
One says:
انظر لمال يكون لسدسه ربع والربعه ثلث وما بقي يتقسم علي ماية وخمسة وتسعين ولا يوجد ذلك في اقل اربعة وعشرين فاضرب اربعة وعشرين في ماية وخمسة وتسعين يصح من ذلك أربعة الاف وستماية وثمانون ومنه يصح
“Find a number, one-sixth of which may be divided into fourths, and one-fourth of which may be divided into thirds; and what thus comes forth let be divisible by hundred and ninety-five. This you cannot accomplish with any number less than twenty-four. Multiply twenty-four by one hundred and ninety-five: you obtain four thousand six hundred and eighty, and this will answer the purpose.”
Another:
وفي وجه آخر انك تجعل ماية وستة وخمسين [1]
- ↑ The numbers in this and in part of the following scholium are in the MS. expressed by figures, which are never used in the text of the work.
2D
