L2/06-216 TO : UTC FROM: D. Anderson RE: Feedback on L2/06-126 Rumi From: ROSA MARIA COMES MAYMO Subject: Re: Rumi notation expert needed to comment on Unicode proposal Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 16:16:54 +0200 To: "ANDERSON, Deborah W" Dear prof. Anderson, As agreed and after reviewing the proposal, by Azzeddine Lazrek from Cadi Ayyad University, Faculty of Sciences, for including the Rumi system of notation characters in the international character encoding standard, Unicode, I am herewith enclosing a first global overview: First of all, the encoding of such a set of characters will be, of course, very useful for researchers working on History of Mathematics, History of Astronomy and History of Science in general, considering that we are dealing with a system not in use at least during the last three or four centuries. The background information is correct although, as far as I am concerned, defective. I mean that there are a quantity of manuscripts, which, in my opinion, should be reviewed and compared, taking into consideration their date, origin, context, etc. before deciding on a canonical pattern for the ciphers. I would not say that there are any characters missing, although, as I said, I think that only one manuscript is not enough to decide which figures are the most used and which ones can be considered as variants and, therefore, kept out of the system. Problems: - Rumi figures extend during a high period, at least from 10th to 17th century, and a wide area, from Egypt, where, most probably, they have their origin, to al-Andalus and (possibly, back) to the Maghreb. - The Coptic or at least Greco-Coptic origin is no longer under doubt. For instance, we know of (Coptic) numerals from several Egyptian papyruses which are very similar to the figures described by the mathematician Ibn al-Banna (1256-1321, Marrakech) proposed by Azzeddine Lazrek. By the way, as far as I have seen, the date of the manuscript is not indicated and it would be important to know whether it was copied during the authorŐs time. There is also a quantity of mss. with Arabic text and Coptic figures, according to the editors, which should be reviewed. - We have yet to establish, also, the break point, when these figures begun to be no longer considered as Coptic or Greco-Coptic and started to be seen just as Rumi. That is to say, when they begun to be considered no longer as foreign, but only of foreign origin. Also we must take into consideration the deformation that these figures have undergone with the increasing influence of the Arabic script. To the point that there were mnemotecnic verses (urjuzas), relating these figures, alien to Arabic alphabet, to several letters of this alphabet. - Also the use of Rumi (and Coptic) figures extends from mathematical mss. to foliation, chapters and quire notations in different kinds of mss. (religious, scientific, accounting, etc.) as well as to astronomical instruments. Hence, I would suggest reviewing a number of manuscripts (bearing in mind date, origin, language, etc.) as well as astronomical instruments, before establishing the canonical pattern of the Rumi figures, or at least to consider the encoding a first approach that could need to be modified in a near future I hope the review reaches you on time! Best regards Rosa Comes Professora Associada Facultat de Filologia Universitat de Barcelona