The Crest of the Peacock: Non European Roots of Mathematics

The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics is a book authored by George Gheverghese Joseph and published by Princeton University Press, the third edition of which was released in 2011. The book was brought out as a response to view of the history of mathematics epitomized by Morris Kline's statement that, comparing to what the Greeks achieved, "the mathematics of Egyptians and Babylonians is the scrawling of children just learning to write, as opposed to great literature", criticised by Joseph as Eurocentric.

The book is divided into 11 chapters. Chapter 1 provides a lengthy justification for the book. Chapter 2 is devoted to a discussion of the mathematics of native Americans and Chapter 3 to the mathematics of ancient Egyptians. In the next two chapters the mathematics of Mesopotamia is considered. There are two chapters dealing with Chinese mathematics, three chapters with Indian mathematics. The book concludes with a chapter on the Islamic contribution to mathematics.