Al-Khawarizmi : The Father of all Algebraic Mathematics

posted on: Oct 9, 2020

By: Ahmed Abu Sultan/ Arab America Contributing Writer

One of the few polymaths known to history, Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, immortalized himself as the structure for many sciences and algebra. The man was solely responsible for the numerals that we use nowadays. He was measuring the movement of the planets while the majority of Europe was drowning in the Dark Ages. Nothing will compare to his contributions to mathematics by the creation of Algebra. How he came to be is one of the greatest mysteries of our current world.  

Early Life

One of the most prominent contributors to scientific progression, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, is otherwise known as the father of algebra. Born in modern-day Uzbekistan, al-Khwārizmī first appeared in historical records as an instructor in the House of Wisdom in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad. He was the first to discover problem-solving formally referred to as al-Jabr. A millennium ago, he published the first-known Atlas of the known world, introduced a decimal numeral system, and calculated the movement of stellar bodies while Europe was deep in the Dark Ages.

Not much is known about his early life. It is puzzling what could result in such a brilliant individual. Nonetheless, his star emitted light then reached the great minds of the House of Wisdom. As a result, he becomes an immortal name carved in history as a polymath that compares to Plato and his descendants. After all, he used much of their work and changed the world in an unfathomable way.

Astronomy

He was the first to discover the tangent of trigonometric functions. His contributions to celestial research into the movement of the sun, moon, and the five other known planets. His charts were so useful that many western scientists relied on his data to further their understanding of celestial bodies, in addition to a few dozen chapters on astronomical data. In the process of acquiring this information, he relied on the Indian method named sindhind. He utilized knowledge from countless ancient civilizations such as Babylon, Greek, Persia, and many others. Imagine, when most of the people on earth could barely read and write, one man was looking into the stars, rationalizing their laws for our understanding.

Unfortunately, none of his original work survived the course of time. However, some of his work survived in Latin translation after his work migrated into the hands of Western scientists.

Geography

Kitāb Ṣūrat al-Arḍ, which roughly translates to the book of the face of the earth, was the first Atlas known in their time. The book was his third piece of work and describes geographical descriptions of countless cities and many geological locations such as the Mediterranean Sea and several others. His work even introduces weather zones, in addition to longitudes and latitudes that produced an accurate list of coordinates describing the map of the world. Furthermore, he went as far as correcting work done by 2nd-century mathematician Ptolemy on the measurements of the earth. The only surviving copy of this book is found in the Strasbourg University Library in France.

Algebra

Algebra is, by far, his greatest contribution to the world. His work, derived from the Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing resulted in almost all of the basic mathematical problem solving we use today. Encouraged by Caliph al-Ma’mun, he constructed this book to provide the public with a method of calculating trade, inheritance, and many others. This book also includes the use of Indian numbers, later evolved into Arabic numerals. The scientific advancement was one of the key factors that brought Europe out of the Dark Ages. The migration of his work five centuries after his death, to be used by Fibonacci, in addition to the Renaissance, will put Europe on a path of exponential technological growth.

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

• squares equal roots (ax² = bx)
• squares equal number (ax² = c)
• roots equal number (bx = c)
• squares and roots equal number (ax² + bx = c)
• squares and number equal roots (ax² + c = bx)
• roots and number equal squares (bx + c = ax²)

His work received recognition from names such as J.J. O’Conner and E.F. Robertson, in addition to many others. After all, his work in algebra was the structure of modern problem-solving mathematics. Translated into Latin by Robert of Chester in 1145, it was used until the sixteenth century as the principal mathematical textbook of European universities.

Apposite  

Ever since he made his name present in every math book, al-Khwārizmī became one of the most popular figures in Arabic history. He was mentioned by almost every single media outlet that existed. So what’s new?

The importance of his work does not lie in what he did twelve centuries ago, but to the methods he applied to produce such results. He was one of the greatest minds in history no doubt, but his time passed and many names came after him. His work benefited other people more than his own. As a result, our generation must look into the path he took in order to change the world to better our future and others. As mentioned in the earlier subjects, every single great piece of work only survived in the Western genesis of knowledge. This explains the edge western civilization had in the past few centuries. Where they conserved knowledge and built on it, we lost sight of it and during that lost ourselves as a great civilization.

If you would like to learn more, please check out these short clips on al-Khwārizmī.

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