Khwarizmi

Muhammad ibn Musa Khwarizmi (محمد بن موسى ابو جعفر الخوارزمي‎)

He was a Persian mathematician, astronomer and geographer. He was born around 780, most probably in Khwārizm, in Uzbekistan, which was then part of the native Iranian-Khwarizmian Afrigid dynasty, and died around 850. He worked most of his life as a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

His Algebra, written around 820, was the first book on the systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. Consequently he is considered by many to be the father of algebra, a title some scholars assign to Diophantus. In the twelfth century, Latin translations of his Arithmetic, which explained Arabic numerals, introduced decimal positional number system to the Western world. He was among the first to use zero as a place holder in positional base notation. The word algorithm derives from his name. He revised and updated Ptolemy's Geography as well as writing several works on astronomy and astrology.

His contributions not only made a great impact on mathematics, but on language as well. The word algebra is derived from al-jabr, one of the two operations used to solve quadratic equations, as described in his book.

Page from a Latin translation, beginning with "Dixit algorizmi"

A page from al-Khwārizmī's Algebra

Corpus Christi College MS 283