Université Kasdi Merbah Ouargla

Faculté des Mathématique et des Sciences de la Matière

Département de Physique
M1, Physique des Rayonnements

The Father of all Algebraic Mathematics

2021-2022
FETITA HANANE FATIMA ZOHRA
 Western historian George Sarton says:

“The simplest and most fundamental of the ideas is mathematics, so if we add to

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it the conception of time to space and number, we enter the field of mechanics,
just as other ideas enter us in the fields of astronomy, nature and chemistry”…

Sarton described the first half of the ninth century AD as the era of
Al-Khwarizmi in his book Introduction to the History of Science and
says that Al-Khwarizmi is the greatest mathematician of all time.

As Dr. David Eugene-Smith and Louis Charles Karpinsky said in

their book “The Hindu-Arabic numerals” that :

"Al-Khwarizmi was the greatest professor in the golden age of Baghdad, as he

was one of the first Muslim writers who collected classical mathematics from the
East and West and preserved it until Europe benefited from it at the time.
This man has great knowledge and the world owes him our current knowledge of
algebra and arithmetic."

In the words of Phillip Hitti:

“He influenced mathematical thought to a greater extent than any other
mediaeval writer.”

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 Al-Khwārizmī, in full Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī,

(Born c. 780 —died c. 850), Muslim mathematician

, astronomer and geographer. He was perhaps one of
the greatest mathematicians who ever lived, as he was
the founder of several branches and basic concepts of
2 mathematics., lived in Baghdad, where he worked
at the “House of Wisdom” (Dār al-Ḥikma) under the
caliphate of al-Maʾmūn.
After obtaining a degree in mathematics from the House of Wisdom,
Harun al-Rashid appointed him as a mathematician in the same place.

In addition to mastering the Turkish and Persian languages, Al-

Khwarizmi learned the Greek language in order to translate Greek
books, especially books concerned with mathematics, and after
translating them, he arranged them in the House of Wisdom library.

Among the books he translated is the Indian Account, which explains

the basics of addition and subtraction.

Al-Khwarizmi's Achievements:

After he was appointed as custodian of the book treasury in his palace

library during the reign of al-Mamun, al-Khwarizmi read the book
“Sind Hind and Al-Sindhat”, which is concerned with astronomy, and
for his great admiration for it, he summarized it in a book he called

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 “The Zij Al-Hind” (‫) زيج الهند‬, whose contents were later transferred
to Europe and translated into many languages,

namely the tables.

The book contained important information

about the celestial bodies and their

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over the ages.

-He also authored a book, "The Little India Sindh. Through this
book, he knew the numerical numbers that we are dealing with now (1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9), and they were known as the dusty numbers ( ‫األرقام‬
‫ )الغبارية‬and were named so because the Indians used to write these
numbers with their fingers on boards sprinkled with dust.

Then he added to these numbers the zero number that the Indians
put in, but they did not write it as a number, so they left a blank space
to indicate it, but Al-Khwarizmi drew the shape of the zero (0), which
made it possible to write decimal numbers easily, which facilitated the
way of performing arithmetic operations.

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 . Al-Khwārizmī’s work on elementary algebra, Al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī
ḥisāb al-jabr waʾl-muqābala (‫“( )الجبر و المقابلة‬The Compendious Book
on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”), was translated into
Latin in the 12th century, from which the title and
term algebra (‫)الجبر‬derives.
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Algebra is a compilation of rules, together with demonstrations, for

finding solutions of linear and quadratic equations based on intuitive
geometric arguments, rather than the abstract notation now
associated with the subject. Its systematic, demonstrative approach
distinguishes it from earlier treatments of the subject.
Algebra )‫ (الجبر‬according to Al-Khwarizmi is changing the position of
an element of the equation - whether it is a root, a square or a number
- to the other side by changing its sign,
for example the equation: x² = 40x – 4x²
is converted by algebra to : 5x² = 40x,
and applying this rule often prevents negative solutions from being
found in any of Al-Khwarizmi's six categories.
And the corresponding (‫)المقابلة‬is the subtraction of the positive
element the same from both sides as.
x2 + 5 = 40x + 4x2 becomes 5 = 40x + 3x²
and applying it makes the elements of each type appear in the
equation only once.

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 His method of solving Linear and Quadratic equations relied on
reducing the equation to one of the following forms:

1. squares equal roots (ax2 = bx)

2. squares equal number (ax2 = c)
3. roots equal number (bx = c)
5 4. squares and roots equal number (ax2 + bx = c)
5. squares and number equal roots (ax2 + c = bx)
6. roots and number equal squares (bx + c = ax2)

It also contains sections on calculating areas

and volumes of geometric figures and on the
use of algebra to solve inheritance problems
according to proportions prescribed by
Islamic law. Elements within the work can
be traced from Babylonian mathematics of
the early 2nd millennium BCE through
Hellenistic, Hebrew, and Hindu treatises.
In the 12th century a second work by al-Khwārizmī introduced Hindu-
Arabic numerals (see numerals and numeral systems) and their
arithmetic to the West. It is preserved only in a Latin
translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum (“Al-Khwārizmī Concerning
the Hindu Art of Reckoning”). From the name of the author, rendered
in Latin as Algoritmi, originated the term algorithm.(‫)الخوارزمية‬

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 A third major book was his Kitāb ṣūrat al-arḍ (“The Image of the
Earth”(); translated as Geography), which presented the coordinates
of localities in the known world based, ultimately, on those in

the Geography of Ptolemy (flourished 127–145 CE) but with improved

values for the length of the Mediterranean Sea and the location of
cities in Asia and Africa. He also assisted in the construction of a world
map for al-Maʾmūn and participated in a project to determine the
circumference of the Earth, which had long been known to be
spherical, by measuring the length of a degree of a meridian through
the plain of Sinjār in Iraq.

Finally, al-Khwārizmī also compiled a set of astronomical tables (Zīj),

based on a variety of Hindu and Greek sources. This work included a
table of sines, evidently for a circle of radius 150 units. Like his
treatises on algebra and Hindu-Arabic numerals, this astronomical
work (or an Andalusian revision thereof) was translated into Latin.

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https://www.arabamerica.com/al-khawarizmi-the-father-of-all-algebraic-mathematics/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Khwarizmi