Life of Al- Khwarizmi

Al- Khwarizmi

           

Born: - around 780 in Baghdad (Now in Iraq)

            Died:- about 850

            Important contribution: - Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala (the book on Algebra).

           

alkhwarizmi

Al- Khwarizmi alias- Abu- Jafar- Muhammad- ibn- Musa al Khwarizmi was a Persian who worked as a mathematician, astronomer and geographer in the Golden Age of Islamic science.There is not much knowledge about the life of this  Math genius and founder of Algebra but what little knowledge do we have about Al- Khwarizmi is due to the historian Al- Tabari.

Al- Tabari writes- Harun al – Rashid became the fifth Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty on 14^th September 786, about the time that al- Khwarizmi was born. After the death of the Caliph his elder son Al- Maamun became the Caliph and he founded an academy called the House of Wisdom where Greek philosophical and scientific works were translted. Al-Khwarizmi and his colleagues the Banu Musa were scholars at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. Their tasks there involved the translation of Greek scientific manuscripts and they also studied, and wrote on, algebra, geometry and astronomy.

He introduced the Hindu decimal system to the Islamic world and Europe; invented the horary quadrant; improved the sundial; developed trigonometry tables; and improved on Ptolemy's astronomy and geography.The algebra treatise Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala was the most famous and important of all of al-Khwarizmi's works. It is the title of this text that gives us the word "algebra. In his book he introduced the natural numbers, solution of equation such as linear and quadratic. The reduction of a quadratic equation carries two operations of al-jabr and al-muqabala. The word al-jabr means- completion and al-muqabal means- balancing. Let us understand the two words with the example-

For the quation-

x² = 40 – 4x²  the al- jabr transforms into 5 x² = 40 x and two applications of al-muqabala reduces 50 + 3x +x² = 29 +10 x into 21 + x² = 7x.

He furthers explain the process of multiplication of expression like- (a+ bx) (c + dx). Gandz writes about the al-Khwarizmi’ algebra –

Al-Khwarizmi's algebra is regarded as the foundation and cornerstone of the sciences. In a sense, al-Khwarizmi is more entitled to be called "the father of algebra" than Diophantus because al-Khwarizmi is the first to teach algebra in an elementary form and for its own sake,  Diophantus  is primarily concerned with the theory of numbers.

                              

                                                Book Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala 

In the next part of his book al- Khwarizmi writes about application of algebra in finding the area of circle, volume of sphere, cone and pyramid. Al- Khwarizmi also wrote a treatise on Hindu- Arabic Numerals which describes about the the Hindu place value system of numerals based on 1,,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0. The first use of zero as pace holder in positional base notation was probably due to al- Khwarizmi.  Besides Algebra, Al-Khwarizmi wrote on geography, astronomy and geometry. Mohammed Khan quoted in praise of al- Khwarizmi’s algebra in the following word-

In the foremost rank of mathematicians of all time stands Al-Khwarizmi. He composed the oldest works on arithmetic and algebra. They were the principal source of mathematical knowledge for centuries to come in the East and the West. The work on arithmetic first introduced the Hindu numbers to Europe, as the very name algorism signifies; and the work on algebra ... gave the name to this important branch of mathematics in the European world...

He introduced the Hindu decimal system to the Islamic world and Europe; invented the horary quadrant; improved the sundial; developed trigonometry tables; and improved on Ptolemy's astronomy and geography. He wrote the book Al-Jabr, which demonstrated simple algebra and geometry, and several other influential books. Unlike Diophantus' work, which dealt in specific examples, Al-Khowârizmi presented general methods. The word algorithm is borrowed from Al-Khowârizmi's name. There were several Muslim mathematicians who contributed to the development of Islamic science, and indirectly to Europe's later Renaissance, but Al-Khowârizmi was one of the earliest and most influential.