Sharh Al-Hawi fi 'Ilm al-Hisab: A 15th-Century Arabic Mathematics Manuscript

Qatar National Library provides a high-resolution digital master copy of manuscript HC.MS.00443 from its Heritage Collection. The manuscript is titled 'Sharh Al-Hawi fi 'Ilm al-Hisab' (Explanation of the Comprehensive Book on the Science of Arithmetic) by Sibt al-Mardini, Muhammad ibn Muhammad (1423-1506). The 2.1 GB dataset is available under a CC0 1.0 license.

Use Cases

• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) training for historical Arabic script based on high-resolution manuscript images.
• Linguistic analysis of 15th-century Arabic mathematical terminology from the manuscript text.
• Digital preservation and scholarly study of historical scientific texts from the Islamic world.

Strengths

• High-resolution digital master copy suitable for detailed analysis.
• Clear provenance from the Qatar National Library Heritage Collection (manuscript HC.MS.00443).
• Released under a permissive CC0 1.0 public domain dedication.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The specific content and structure of the digitized pages are not described.

Provenance

Source

Qatar National Library Heritage Collection

Collection Method

Digitization of a physical manuscript.

Time Range

Manuscript authored between 1423-1506.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-31 08:20:37; freshness should be verified.