Mathematician:Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

Mathematician

Mathematician who lived and worked in Baghdad.

Famous for his book The Algebra, which contained the first systematic description of the solution to linear and quadratic equations.

Sometimes referred to as "the father of algebra", but some claim the title should belong to Diophantus.

Nationality

Persian

History

• Born: c. 780 in Khiva, in what is now Uzbekistan
• Died: c. 850

Theorems and Definitions

• The term algebra comes from the al-ğabr part of the title of his most famous work.
• The related terms algorism and algorithm are derived from the Latin form of his name al-Khwarismi.

Publications

• 825: Al-jam' w'al-tafriq ib hisab al-hind ("Addition and Subtraction in Indian Arithmetic")
• c. 825 -- 830: Al-Kitāb al-muḫtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-ğabr wa-l-muqābala (Arabic: الكتاب المختصر في حساب الجبر والمقابلة) : The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, otherwise known as The Algebra.

A medieval Latin translation of some of his writing survives:

• Algorithmi de numero indorum ("Calculation with Indian numbers")

Also known as

Full name: محمد بن موسى ابو جعفر الخوارزمي‎ -- Muḥammad bin Mūsā Abū Ǧaʿfar al-Ḫawārazmī.

The name can be arranged differently, for example: Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsā Abū al-Khwārizmī.

It means: Father of Abdullah, Mohammed, son of Moses, native of Khwārizm.

Lake Khwārizm is what the Aral Sea was once called. The Khwārizm area is in the Amu river basin just south of there.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1971: Allan Clark: Elements of Abstract Algebra ... (previous) ... (next): Introduction
• 1981: Heinz Zemanek: Al-khorezmi his background, his personality his work and his influence (Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 122: pp. 1 – 81)
• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $0$ Zero
• 1992: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): Al-Khwarizmi (c. $825$ ad)
• 1997: Donald E. Knuth: The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms (3rd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $\S 1.1$: Algorithms
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $0$ Zero
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): al-Khwarizmi, Muhammad ibn Musa (c. 780-c. 850)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): al-Khwarizmi, Muhammad ibn Musa (c.780-c.850)
• 2008: Ian Stewart: Taming the Infinite ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $3$: Notations and Numbers: Brahmagupta, Mahavira and Bhaskara
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): al-Khwārizmī
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Khwārizmī, Muhammad ibn Mūsā al- (about ad 800)
• 2021: Richard Earl and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (6th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): al-Khwārizmī