Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī[note 1] (Persian: محمد بن موسی خوارزمی, Arabic: محمد بن موسى الخوارزمی; c. 780 – c. 850), formerly Latinized as Algoritmi,[note 2] was a Persian[3][4] (modern Khiva, Uzbekistan) mathematician, astronomer, and geographer during the Abbasid Caliphate, a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. In the 12th century, Latin translations of his work on the Indian numerals introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world.[5] Al-Khwārizmī's The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations in Arabic. He is often considered one of the fathers of algebra.[6][7] He revised Ptolemy's Geography and wrote on astronomy and astrology. Some words reflect the importance of al-Khwārizmī's contributions to mathematics. "Algebra" is derived from al-jabr, one of the two operations he used to solve quadratic equations. Algorism and algorithm stem from Algoritmi, the Latin form of his name.[8] His name is also the origin of (Spanish) guarismo[9] and of (Portuguese) algarismo, both meaning digit.
Here's a time line of Dr. Borlaug's life:
- Life - Few details of al-Khwārizmī's life are known with certainty. He was born in a Persian[4] family and Ibn al-Nadim gives his birthplace as Khwarezm[10] in Greater Khorasan (modern Khiva, Xorazm Region, Uzbekistan). Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari gives his name as Muḥammad ibn Musá al-Khwārizmiyy al-Majūsiyy al-Quṭrubbaliyy (محمد بن موسى الخوارزميّ المجوسـيّ القطربّـليّ). The epithet al-Qutrubbulli could indicate he might instead have come from Qutrubbul (Qatrabbul),[11] a viticulture district near Baghdad. However, Rashed[12] suggests:
- Contributions - Al-Khwārizmī's contributions to mathematics, geography, astronomy, and cartography established the basis for innovation in algebra and trigonometry. His systematic approach to solving linear and quadratic equations led to algebra, a word derived from the title of his 830 book on the subject, "The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing".
- Algebra - Main article: The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing Further information: Latin translations of the 12th century and Science in the medieval Islamic world Left: The original Arabic print manuscript of the Book of Algebra by Al-Khwārizmī. Right: A page from The Algebra of Al-Khwarizmi by Fredrick Rosen, in English. The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing (Arabic: الكتاب المختصر في حساب الجبر والمقابلة al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wal-muqābala) is a mathematical book written approximately 830 CE. The book was written with the encouragement of Caliph al-Ma'mun as a popular work on calculation and is replete with examples and applications to a wide range of problems in trade, surveying and legal inheritance.[16] The term "algebra" is derived from the name of one of the basic operations with equations (al-jabr, meaning "restoration", referring to adding a number to both sides of the equation to consolidate or cancel terms) described in this book. The book was translated in Latin as Liber algebrae et almucabala by Robert of Chester (Segovia, 1145) hence "algebra", and also by Gerard of Cremona. A unique Arabic copy is kept at Oxford and was translated in 1831 by F. Rosen. A Latin translation is kept in Cambridge.[17]
- Arithmetic - Al-Khwārizmī's second major work was on the subject of arithmetic, which survived in a Latin translation but was lost in the original Arabic. The translation was most likely done in the 12th century by Adelard of Bath, who had also translated the astronomical tables in 1126. The Latin manuscripts are untitled, but are commonly referred to by the first two words with which they start: Dixit algorizmi ("So said al-Khwārizmī"), or Algoritmi de numero Indorum ("al-Khwārizmī on the Hindu Art of Reckoning"), a name given to the work by Baldassarre Boncompagni in 1857. The original Arabic title was possibly Kitāb al-Jam‘ wat-Tafrīq bi-Ḥisāb al-Hind[22] ("The Book of Addition and Subtraction According to the Hindu Calculation").[23]
- Astronomy - Al-Khwārizmī's Zīj al-Sindhind[13] (Arabic: زيج السند هند, "astronomical tables of Sindh and Hind") is a work consisting of approximately 37 chapters on calendrical and astronomical calculations and 116 tables with calendrical, astronomical and astrological data, as well as a table of sine values. This is the first of many Arabic Zijes based on the Indian astronomical methods known as the sindhind.[24] The work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time. This work marked the turning point in Islamic astronomy. Hitherto, Muslim astronomers had adopted a primarily research approach to the field, translating works of others and learning already discovered knowledge.
- Trigonometry - Al-Khwārizmī's Zīj al-Sindhind also contained tables for the trigonometric functions of sines and cosine.[24] A related treatise on spherical trigonometry is also attributed to him.[20]
- Geography - Al-Khwārizmī's third major work is his Kitāb Ṣūrat al-Arḍ (Arabic: كتاب صورة الأرض, "Book of the Description of the Earth"),[26] also known as his Geography, which was finished in 833. It is a major reworking of Ptolemy's 2nd-century Geography, consisting of a list of 2402 coordinates of cities and other geographical features following a general introduction.[27]