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Fake news on Apollonius of Perga

A fake media story on the alleged discovery of two lost books by Apollonius of Perga in the liberay of Leiden University in the Netherlands appeared on the internet in February 2025; I am grateful to Mr Robert Pearse who has revealed the fraud in his blog.
See https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2025/02/11/a-fake-media-story-about-discovery-of-lost-works-by-apollonius-of-perge/
The source of the misinformation is an op-ed published without my consent on February 4, 2025 by the Global Media Department of Sharjah University, United Arab Emirates.
Link to the op-ed: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1072604
The fake news has also appeared in Bulgarian, in French, in Greek, in Persian, in Polish , and even on the Muslimheritage.com website.

The fake news says that the two Books 5 and 7 of the Conics of Apollonius of Perga have recently been identified in an Arabic manuscript the Library of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. The fake news is based on incorrect reading of an article by me which recently appeared in a beauftifully illustrated book for a general audience: Jan P. Hogendijk, "Jacobus Golius and his Arabic manuscripts on the exact sciences, " pp. 114-123 in Arnoud Vrolijk, Kasper van Ommen, Karin Scheper and Tijmen Baarda, eds., Prophets, Poets and Scholars: The Collections of the Middle Eastern Library of Leiden University, Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2024. ISBN 9789087284077 (print); 9789400604520 (ePDF), https://doi.org//10.24415/9789087284077

Here is the small section of my article about the Arabic manuscript of Books 5-7 (meaning: 5, 6 and 7) of the Conics: First page;   second page;   suggestions for further reading with a reference to the book by G.J. Toomer which tells the story in more detail.

For the amusement of the reader, here is page 292-293 of the 1674 catalogue of the Leiden University Library. The page states that the Arabic manuscript (now number 14, then number 13) contains the Books 5, 6 and 7 of the Conics, hitherto missing (Apollonii Pergaei Conicarum sectionum lib. V. VI. & VII. hactenus desiderati) and much else. Here is the title page of the catalogue with the date MDCLXXIV=1674. Thus the so-called "discovery" mentioned in the fake news had already been known for more than 350 years.

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Jan Hogendijk <J.P.Hogendijk_at_uu.nl>
2025