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AL-KHOREZMI AND THE DAWN OF ALGEBRA
T he word "algebra" comes from a phrase (in bold below) in the title of an Arab book "Kitab al muhtasar fi hisab al gabr w'al muqubalah." This has been translated as "A compact introduction (book) to calculation using rules of completion and reduction," but Solomon Gandz has suggested "al gabr" comes from Babylonian "gabru" meaning solution of an equation, and that "muqubalah" (q reads like k) was its equivalent in Arabic. The book covered simple equations like the one in the preceding section, also quadratic ones involving x2, as well as other areas such as geometry and the division of inheritances.
Its author, Mukhammad ibn Musa Al-Khorezmi (lived about 780-850) was the chief mathematician in the "House of Wisdom", an academy of sciences established in Baghdad by the Caliph Al Ma'mun, son of Harun Al Rashid of "Arabian Nights" fame. The "House of Wisdom" was involved in Al Ma'mun's expedition to measure the size of the Earth, which Al-Khorezmi afterwards estimated to have a circumference of 21000 Arab miles. (We are not sure how big the Arab mile was, the actual figure is about 25000 of our miles; more about such estimates, here).
A l-Khorezmi's family (and possibly he as well) apparently came from the oasis of Khorazem, at the southern end of the Aral Sea, in what is now Uzbekistan. He is also credited with helping establish among the Arabs the Indian numbering system, using decimal notation and the zero. Previous systems of writing numbers used letters, like the Roman numeral systems or the cruder ones of the Greeks and Hebrews. When Al-Khorezmi's book on the new system reached Europe, the Europeans called its use "algorism" or "algorithm," a corruption of the author's name. Today "algorithm" means method of calculation, and the rise of computers has led to extensive work on developing efficient computer algorithms.
In Baghdad, among other scholars of the academy, he worked for many years, Al-Khwarizmi. The famous historian of the X century. An-Nadim reports that Muhammad ibn Musa, a native of Khorezm, was involved in the “House of Wisdom” Caliph al-Ma’mun.
One of the page of the book of
”Al Jabir and Al muqobela” of Al Khorezmiy
Up to 813 g Al-Mamun was the governor of the eastern provinces and lived in Merv. It is possible that here he met with Al-Khwarizmi, and later invited him to Baghdad.
In one of his writings, Al-Khwarizmi praised the Al-Mamun. He noted his “love of science and the desire to move towards a scientist, stretching over them the wing of his protection and helping them to clarify that it is not clear to them, and to facilitate that difficult for them.”
It is not known how active it was in fact a private part of Al-Mamun in scientific work, but there is no doubt that the scientists working at the “House of Wisdom”, made great contributions to mathematics, astronomy and other sciences. They had, for example, measure the length of a degree of the meridian in order to clarify the value of the circumference of the Earth, found in antiquity. It was found the value of the arc 1 °, close to the true (111 km). Historians believe that in this work involved and Al-Khwarizmi.
About Baghdad period of his life details, too, did not survive. There are reports that he made two trips: one – a country of Khazars, and another – in Byzantium. However, it is difficult to argue that this information is accurate.
The most recent date associated with the name of Al-Khwarizmi – 847 this year died Caliph Al-Wasik, and Al-Khwarizmi is mentioned among the persons who were present at his death.Thus, we see that the facts of the life of the great Central Asian scholar remained very small. Therefore, historians of science should be based primarily on the study of his works. The diverse research interests of Al-Khwarizmi concerned mathematics, theoretical and practical astronomy, geography and history. Not all the works written by al-Khwarizmi, survived. Some of them are mentioned by medieval writers, were subsequently lost.
He wrote the first manual on arithmetic, based on the positional principle. In addition, retained his treatise on algebra and on the calendar. Muhammad wrote the famous book “Kitab al-Jabr wal-Muqabala” – “The book is about the restoration and opposition” (dedicated to the solution of linear and quadratic equations), the name of which comes the word “algebra”. A treatise on algebra also includes a chapter on geometry, trigonometry table and the latitudes and longitudes of cities.
Leaders of al-Khwarizmi has played a very important role in the development of arithmetic. The author’s name in romanized form Algorismus and Algorithmus came to mean in medieval Europe, the whole system of decimal arithmetic. Subsequently, the word “algorithm” has come to denote any regular process, after a finite number of steps, giving the solution of a certain class of problems.
Geographical treatise Al-Khwarizmi ‘book picture of the Earth “is the first known work on the geography of the Arabic language. He had a strong influence on the further development of this science in the East.
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