A brilliant 9th century Baghdad mathematician called Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
invented Algebra. "Algebra" is derived from the Arabic word (al-jabr) and much of its
methods from Arabic/Islamic mathematics. His Compendious Book on Calculation by
Completion and Balancing presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic
equations (the basis of computer programming).
The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style
of the numerals is Arabic and it first appeared in a print in the work of the Muslim
mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825.
Al-Khwarizmi introduced the 9 integers from the indian system and explained how zeroes
are used to create multiple of ten, a hundred, a thousand and so on based on the use of
angles. The Indian-Arabic decimal system made arithmetic vastly simple and more rapid.
The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian
mathematician Fibonacci. Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the
Muslim world. And Al-Kindi's discovery of frequency analysis rendered all the codes of the
ancient world soluble and created the basis of modern cryptology.
In the Photo:
(A): The original Arabic print manuscript of the Book of Algebra by Al-Khwarizmi.
(B): A page from The Algebra of Al-Khwarizmi by Fredrick Rosen, in English.
(C): A page from al-Khwarizmi's Algebra
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