Revista de História da Educação Matemática (Nov 2023)
EARLY GEOMETRY TEXTBOOKS PRINTED IN PERSIAN
Abstract
The printing of mathematics textbooks in Persian did not begin until the second half of the nineteenth century. The initial stimulus to employ print technology appears to be the founding of Dār al-Funūn, an institution intended to provide instruction in the “new” scientific learning of Europe. Most of the earliest examples of vernacular printed textbooks were either translations of imported European textbooks or adaptations based on the model of these European textbooks. The examination of these early printed textbooks can serve as a case study of the kinematics of mathematical knowledge. Thanks to the digitization of a representative sample of nineteenth century printed geometry textbooks, we are able to trace some basic features of the evolution of these printed textbooks in Persian. Of special interest is the process of adapting European styles of the presentation of mathematical knowledge to forms that could be understood by Persian-speaking students educated in more traditional mathematical sciences. These efforts resulted initially in a “hybrid” presentation style – both the labels of diagram points as well as equations were printed in Roman script while the verbal elements of the text were presented in traditional Persian script.
