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Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

al-Khwrizm

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(born 780, Baghdad, Iraqdied 850) Muslim mathematician and astronomer. He lived in Baghdad during the golden age of Islamic science and, like Euclid, wrote mathematical books that collected and arranged the discoveries of earlier mathematicians. His Al-Kitb al-mukhtaar f isb al-jabr wa'l-muqbala (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing) is a compilation of rules for solving linear and quadratic equations, as well as problems of geometry and proportion. Its translation into Latin in the 12th century provided the link between the great Hindu and Arab mathematicians and European scholars. A corruption of the book's title resulted in the word algebra; a corruption of the author's own name resulted in the term algorithm.

For more information on al-Khwrizm, visit Britannica.com.

Oxford Dictionary of Scientists:

Abu Ja'far Muhammad Ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi

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(c. 800-847) Mathematician, astronomer, and geographer

With my two algorithms, one can solve all problems — without error, if God wills it! — Algebra

Little is known about the life of Al-Khwarizmi (al-kwah-riz-mee). It is thought that he took his name from his birthplace, Khwarizm, then part of the Persian Empire, now Khiva in Uzbekistan. He was a member of the academy of sciences in Baghdad, which flourished during the rule (813–33) of caliph al-Ma'mun. Although probably Persian, he is often described as an Arab mathematician because he wrote in Arabic and did all of his work in the context of 9th century Arab Abbasid culture.

Al-Khwarizmi's main astronomical treatise and his chief mathematical work, the Algebra, are dedicated to the caliph. The Algebra enlarged upon the work of Diophantus and is largely concerned with methods for solving practical computational problems rather than algebra as the term is now understood. Insofar as he did discuss algebra, al-Khwarizmi confined his discussion to equations of the first and second degrees. Similarly, his astronomical work, Zij al-sindhind, is also based on the work of other scientists. As with the Algebra, its chief interest is as the earliest Arab work still in existence in Arabic. Al-Khwarizmi's other main surviving works are a treatise on the Hindu system of numerals and a treatise on geography. The Hindu number system, with its incorporation of a symbol for zero, was introduced to Europe via a Latin translation (De numero indorum; On the Hindu Art of Reckoning) of al-Khwarizmi's work. Only the Latin translation remains but it seems certain that al-Khwarizmi was the first Arab mathematician to expound the new number system systematically in Arabic. The term "algorithm" (a rule of calculation) is a variant form of his name. His geographical treatise marked a considerable improvement over earlier work, notably in correcting some of the influential errors and misconceptions that had gained currency owing to Ptolemy's Geography.

Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

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Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (died ca. 850) was a Moslem mathematician, astronomer, and geographer and one of the most seminal scientific minds of early Islamic culture.

Al-Khwarizmi flourished at the court of the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (reigned 813-833), whose interest in science and philosophy gave great impetus to scholarly investigation and to a copious translation movement from Greek via Syriac into Arabic. Very little is known of al-Khwarizmi's life, although his name indicates at least a family origin in the Persian culture of the Oxus River (Amu Darya) delta. He may have been attached to al-Mamun's scientific academy in Baghdad, the House of Wisdom (Arabic, Bayt al-Hikma), and it is probable that he participated in the calculation of the length of a degree of latitude, which took place during al-Mamun's reign.

To al-Khwarizmi we owe the world "algebra," from the title of his greatest mathematical work, Hisab al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabala (Calculation for Integration and Equation). The book, which was twice translated into Latin, by both Gerard of Cremona and Robert of Chester in the 12th century, works out several hundred simple quadratic equations by analysis as well as by geometrical example. It also has substantial sections on methods of dividing up inheritances and surveying plots of land. Al-Khwarizmi was one of the early popularizers in the Islamic world of the numeral system, which, along with the zero concept, is called Arabic in the West but which was borrowed at about this time from India. A technical term for the Arabic numerals, no longer much in use, is derived from the very name al-Khwarizmi: algorism.

Al-Khwarizmi also wrote a treatise on arithmetic which has survived only in a medieval Latin translation; Arabic bibliographies of the period mention two books by him on the astrolabe and one on sundials, although none of these seems to have come down to us. Al-Khwarizmi also compiled the first astronomical tables known in the Moslem world. They were translated into Latin, together with their lengthy introduction, by Adelard of Bath in 1126.

Of great importance also was al-Khwarizmi's contribution to medieval geography. His improvement upon Ptolemy's work is entitled Surat al-Ard (The Shape of the Earth). The text exists in a manuscript; the maps have unfortunately not been preserved, although modern scholars have been able to reconstruct them from al-Khwarizmi's descriptions.

Further Reading

The Hisab al-Jabr was translated into English with a useful biographical introduction and notes by Louis Charles Karpinski, Robert of Chester's Latin Translation of the Algebra of al-Khowarizmi (1915). Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam (1968), has extensive material on al-Khwarizmi. For the intellectual setting of his era see "The Time of al-Khwarizmi" in volume 1 of George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science (3 vols. in 5, 1927-1948).

Columbia Encyclopedia:

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

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Al-Khowarizmi (äl-khōwärēz'mē), fl. 820, Arab mathematician of the court of Mamun in Baghdad. His treatises on Hindu arithmetic and on algebra made him famous. He is said to have given algebra its name, and the word algorithm is said to have been derived from his name. Much of the mathematical knowledge of medieval Europe was derived from Latin translations of his works.
Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics:

Muhammad Ibn Mūsā Al- Khwārizmī

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(about ad800)  Mathematician and astronomer of Baghdad, the author of two important Arabic works on arithmetic and algebra. The word ‘algorithm’ is derived from the occurrence of his name in the title of the work that includes a description of the Hindu–Arabic number system. The word ‘algebra’ comes from the title Al-jabr wa’l muqābalah of his other work, which contains, among other things, methods of solving quadratic equations by a method akin to completing the square .

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī

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"al-Khwārizmī" redirects here. For other uses, see al-Khwārizmī (disambiguation).
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī

A stamp issued September 6, 1983 in the Soviet Union, commemorating al-Khwārizmī's (approximate) 1200th birthday.
Born c. 780
Died c. 850
Ethnicity Persian[1][2][3]
Known for Treatises on algebra and Indian numerals
Influenced Abu Kamil

Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī[note 1], earlier transliterated as Algoritmi or Algaurizin, (c. 780, Khwārizm[2][4][5] – c. 850) was a Persian[1][2][3] mathematician, astronomer and geographer, a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. The word al-Khwarizmi is pronounced in classical Arabic as Al-Khwarithmi hence the Latin transliteration.

In the twelfth century, Latin translations of his work on the Indian numerals introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world.[5] His Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations in Arabic. In Renaissance Europe, he was considered the original inventor of algebra, although we now know that his work is based on older Indian or Greek sources.[6] He revised Ptolemy's Geography and wrote on astronomy and astrology.

Some words reflect the importance of al-Khwarizmi'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.[7] His name is also the origin of (Spanish) guarismo[8] and of (Portuguese) algarismo, both meaning digit.

Contents

Life

He was born in a Persian[1][2][3] family, and his birthplace is given as Chorasmia by Ibn al-Nadim.

Few details of al-Khwārizmī's life are known with certainty. His name may indicate that he came from Khwarezm (Khiva), then in Greater Khorasan, which occupied the eastern part of the Greater Iran, now Xorazm Province in Uzbekistan. Abu Rayhan Biruni calls the people of Khwarizm "a branch of the Persian tree".[9]

Al-Tabari gave his name as Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwārizmī al-Majousi al-Katarbali (محمد بن موسى الخوارزميّ المجوسـيّ القطربّـليّ). The epithet al-Qutrubbulli could indicate he might instead have come from Qutrubbul (Qatrabbul),[10] a viticulture district near Baghdad. However, Rashed[11] suggests:

There is no need to be an expert on the period or a philologist to see that al-Tabari's second citation should read “Muhammad ibn Mūsa al-Khwārizmī and al-Majūsi al-Qutrubbulli,” and that there are two people (al-Khwārizmī and al-Majūsi al-Qutrubbulli) between whom the letter wa [Arabic ‘و’ for the article ‘and’] has been omitted in an early copy. This would not be worth mentioning if a series of errors concerning the personality of al-Khwārizmī, occasionally even the origins of his knowledge, had not been made. Recently, G. J. Toomer ... with naive confidence constructed an entire fantasy on the error which cannot be denied the merit of amusing the reader.

Regarding al-Khwārizmī's religion, Toomer writes:

Another epithet given to him by al-Ṭabarī, "al-Majūsī," would seem to indicate that he was an adherent of the old Zoroastrian religion. This would still have been possible at that time for a man of Iranian origin, but the pious preface to al-Khwārizmī's Algebra shows that he was an orthodox Muslim, so al-Ṭabarī's epithet could mean no more than that his forebears, and perhaps he in his youth, had been Zoroastrians.[1]

Ibn al-Nadīm's Kitāb al-Fihrist includes a short biography on al-Khwārizmī, together with a list of the books he wrote. Al-Khwārizmī accomplished most of his work in the period between 813 and 833. After the Islamic conquest of Persia, Baghdad became the centre of scientific studies and trade, and many merchants and scientists from as far as China and India traveled to this city, as did Al-Khwārizmī. He worked in Baghdad as a scholar at the House of Wisdom established by Caliph al-Maʾmūn, where he studied the sciences and mathematics, which included the translation of Greek and Sanskrit scientific manuscripts.

D. M. Dunlop suggests that it may have been possible that Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was in fact the same person as Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir, the eldest of the three Banū Mūsā.[12][year missing]

Contributions

A page from al-Khwārizmī's Algebra

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" (al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabalaالكتاب المختصر في حساب الجبر والمقابلة).

On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals written about 825, was principally responsible for spreading the Indian system of numeration throughout the Middle East and Europe. It was translated into Latin as Algoritmi de numero Indorum. Al-Khwārizmī, rendered as (Latin) Algoritmi, led to the term "algorithm".

Some of his work was based on Persian and Babylonian astronomy, Indian numbers, and Greek mathematics.

Al-Khwārizmī systematized and corrected Ptolemy's data for Africa and the Middle east. Another major book was Kitab surat al-ard ("The Image of the Earth"; translated as Geography), presenting the coordinates of places based on those in the Geography of Ptolemy but with improved values for the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, and Africa.

He also wrote on mechanical devices like the astrolabe and sundial.

He assisted a project to determine the circumference of the Earth and in making a world map for al-Ma'mun, the caliph, overseeing 70 geographers.[13]

When, in the 12th century, his works spread to Europe through Latin translations, it had a profound impact on the advance of mathematics in Europe. He introduced Arabic numerals into the Latin West, based on a place-value decimal system developed from Indian sources.[14]

Algebra

Main article: The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing
Further information: Latin translations of the 12th century and Islamic science
Left: The original Arabic print manuscript of the Book of Algebra by Al-Khwarizmi. Right: A page from The Algebra of Al-Khwarizmi by Fredrick Rosen, in English.

Al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wa-l-muqābala (Arabic: الكتاب المختصر في حساب الجبر والمقابلة‎, 'The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing') is a mathematical book written approximately 830 CE. The book was written with the encouragement of the 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.[15] The term algebra is derived from the name of one of the basic operations with equations (al-jabr, meaning completion, or, subtracting a number from both sides of the equation) 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.[16]

It provided an exhaustive account of solving polynomial equations up to the second degree,[17] and discussed the fundamental methods of "reduction" and "balancing", referring to the transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation, that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation.[18]

Al-Khwārizmī's method of solving linear and quadratic equations worked by first reducing the equation to one of six standard forms (where b and c are positive integers)

  • 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)

by dividing out the coefficient of the square and using the two operations al-jabr (Arabic: الجبر‎ “restoring” or “completion”) and al-muqābala ("balancing"). Al-jabr is the process of removing negative units, roots and squares from the equation by adding the same quantity to each side. For example, x2 = 40x − 4x2 is reduced to 5x2 = 40x. Al-muqābala is the process of bringing quantities of the same type to the same side of the equation. For example, x2 + 14 = x + 5 is reduced to x2 + 9 = x.

The above discussion uses modern mathematical notation for the types of problems which the book discusses. However, in al-Khwārizmī's day, most of this notation had not yet been invented, so he had to use ordinary text to present problems and their solutions. For example, for one problem he writes, (from an 1831 translation)

"If some one say: "You divide ten into two parts: multiply the one by itself; it will be equal to the other taken eighty-one times." Computation: You say, ten less thing, multiplied by itself, is a hundred plus a square less twenty things, and this is equal to eighty-one things. Separate the twenty things from a hundred and a square, and add them to eighty-one. It will then be a hundred plus a square, which is equal to a hundred and one roots. Halve the roots; the moiety is fifty and a half. Multiply this by itself, it is two thousand five hundred and fifty and a quarter. Subtract from this one hundred; the remainder is two thousand four hundred and fifty and a quarter. Extract the root from this; it is forty-nine and a half. Subtract this from the moiety of the roots, which is fifty and a half. There remains one, and this is one of the two parts."[15]

In modern notation this process, with 'x' the "thing" (shay') or "root", is given by the steps,

(10-x)^2=81 x
x^2 - 20 x + 100 = 81 x
x^2+100=101 x

Let the roots of the equation be 'p' and 'q'. Then \tfrac{p+q}{2}=50\tfrac{1}{2}, pq =100 and

\frac{p-q}{2} = \sqrt{\left(\frac{p+q}{2}\right)^2 - pq}=\sqrt{2550\tfrac{1}{4} - 100}=49\tfrac{1}{2}

So a root is given by

x=50\tfrac{1}{2}-49\tfrac{1}{2}=1

Several authors have also published texts under the name of Kitāb al-jabr wa-l-muqābala, including |Abū Ḥanīfa al-Dīnawarī, Abū Kāmil Shujā ibn Aslam, Abū Muḥammad al-ʿAdlī, Abū Yūsuf al-Miṣṣīṣī, 'Abd al-Hamīd ibn Turk, Sind ibn ʿAlī, Sahl ibn Bišr, and Šarafaddīn al-Ṭūsī.

J. J. O'Conner and E. F. Robertson wrote in the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive:

"Perhaps one of the most significant advances made by Arabic mathematics began at this time with the work of al-Khwarizmi, namely the beginnings of algebra. It is important to understand just how significant this new idea was. It was a revolutionary move away from the Greek concept of mathematics which was essentially geometry. Algebra was a unifying theory which allowed rational numbers, irrational numbers, geometrical magnitudes, etc., to all be treated as "algebraic objects". It gave mathematics a whole new development path so much broader in concept to that which had existed before, and provided a vehicle for future development of the subject. Another important aspect of the introduction of algebraic ideas was that it allowed mathematics to be applied to itself in a way which had not happened before."[19]

R. Rashed and Angela Armstrong write:

"Al-Khwarizmi's text can be seen to be distinct not only from the Babylonian tablets, but also from Diophantus' Arithmetica. It no longer concerns a series of problems to be resolved, but an exposition which starts with primitive terms in which the combinations must give all possible prototypes for equations, which henceforward explicitly constitute the true object of study. On the other hand, the idea of an equation for its own sake appears from the beginning and, one could say, in a generic manner, insofar as it does not simply emerge in the course of solving a problem, but is specifically called on to define an infinite class of problems."[20]
Page from a Latin translation, beginning with "Dixit algorizmi"

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 twelfth 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-Jamʿ wa-l-tafrīq bi-ḥisāb al-Hind[21] ("The Book of Addition and Subtraction According to the Hindu Calculation")[22]

Al-Khwarizmi's work on arithmetic was responsible for introducing the Arabic numerals, based on the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed in Indian mathematics, to the Western world. The term "algorithm" is derived from the algorism, the technique of performing arithmetic with Hindu-Arabic numerals developed by al-Khwarizmi. Both "algorithm" and "algorism" are derived from the Latinized forms of al-Khwarizmi's name, Algoritmi and Algorismi, respectively.

Astronomy

Page from Corpus Christi College MS 283. A Latin translation of al-Khwārizmī's Zīj.

Al-Khwārizmī's Zīj al-Sindhind[1] (Arabic: زيج "astronomical tables of Sind 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.[23] 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.

The original Arabic version (written c. 820) is lost, but a version by the Spanish astronomer Maslamah Ibn Ahmad al-Majriti (c. 1000) has survived in a Latin translation, presumably by Adelard of Bath (January 26, 1126).[24] The four surviving manuscripts of the Latin translation are kept at the Bibliothèque publique (Chartres), the Bibliothèque Mazarine (Paris), the Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid) and the Bodleian Library (Oxford).

Trigonometry

Al-Khwārizmī's Zīj al-Sindhind also contained tables for the trigonometric functions of sines and cosine.[23] A related treatise on spherical trigonometry is also attributed to him.[19]

Geography

Hubert Daunicht's reconstruction of al-Khwārizmī's planisphere.

Al-Khwārizmī's third major work is his Kitāb ṣūrat al-Arḍ (Arabic: كتاب صورة الأرض "Book on the appearance of the Earth" or "The image of the Earth" translated as Geography), which was finished in 833. It is a revised and completed version of Ptolemy's Geography, consisting of a list of 2402 coordinates of cities and other geographical features following a general introduction.[25]

There is only one surviving copy of Kitāb ṣūrat al-Arḍ, which is kept at the Strasbourg University Library. A Latin translation is kept at the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid. The complete title translates as Book of the appearance of the Earth, with its cities, mountains, seas, all the islands and rivers, written by Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwārizmī, according to the geographical treatise written by Ptolemy the Claudian.

The book opens with the list of latitudes and longitudes, in order of "weather zones", that is to say in blocks of latitudes and, in each weather zone, by order of longitude. As Paul Gallez[dubious – discuss] points out, this excellent system allows the deduction of many latitudes and longitudes where the only extant document is in such a bad condition as to make it practically illegible.

Neither the Arabic copy nor the Latin translation include the map of the world itself; however, Hubert Daunicht was able to reconstruct the missing map from the list of coordinates. Daunicht read the latitudes and longitudes of the coastal points in the manuscript, or deduces them from the context where they were not legible. He transferred the points onto graph paper and connected them with straight lines, obtaining an approximation of the coastline as it was on the original map. He then does the same for the rivers and towns.[26]

Al-Khwārizmī corrected Ptolemy's gross overestimate for the length of the Mediterranean Sea[27] from the Canary Islands to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean; Ptolemy overestimated it at 63 degrees of longitude, while al-Khwarizmi almost correctly estimated it at nearly 50 degrees of longitude. He "also depicted the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as open bodies of water, not land-locked seas as Ptolemy had done."[28] Al-Khwarizmi thus set the Prime Meridian of the Old World at the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, 10–13 degrees to the east of Alexandria (the prime meridian previously set by Ptolemy) and 70 degrees to the west of Baghdad. Most medieval Muslim geographers continued to use al-Khwarizmi's prime meridian.[27]

Jewish calendar

Al-Khwārizmī wrote several other works including a treatise on the Hebrew calendar (Risāla fi istikhrāj taʾrīkh al-yahūd "Extraction of the Jewish Era"). It describes the 19-year intercalation cycle, the rules for determining on what day of the week the first day of the month Tishrī shall fall; calculates the interval between the Jewish era (creation of Adam) and the Seleucid era; and gives rules for determining the mean longitude of the sun and the moon using the Jewish calendar. Similar material is found in the works of al-Bīrūnī and Maimonides.[1]

Other works

Several Arabic manuscripts in Berlin, Istanbul, Tashkent, Cairo and Paris contain further material that surely or with some probability comes from al-Khwārizmī. The Istanbul manuscript contains a paper on sundials, which is mentioned in the Fihrist. Other papers, such as one on the determination of the direction of Mecca, are on the spherical astronomy.

Two texts deserve special interest on the morning width (Maʿrifat saʿat al-mashriq fī kull balad) and the determination of the azimuth from a height (Maʿrifat al-samt min qibal al-irtifāʿ).

He also wrote two books on using and constructing astrolabes. Ibn al-Nadim in his Kitab al-Fihrist (an index of Arabic books) also mentions Kitāb ar-Rukhāma(t) (the book on sundials) and Kitab al-Tarikh (the book of history) but the two have been lost.

See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: al-Khwārizmī
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Notes

  1. ^ There is some confusion in the literature on whether al-Khwārizmī's full name is Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī or Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī. Ibn Khaldun notes in his encyclopedic work: "The first who wrote upon this branch (algebra) was Abu ʿAbdallah al-Khowarizmi, after whom came Abu Kamil Shojaʿ ibn Aslam." (MacGuckin de Slane). (Rosen 1831, pp. xi–xiii) mentions that "[Abu Abdallah Mohammed ben Musa] lived and wrote under the caliphat of Al Mamun, and must therefore be distinguished from Abu Jafar Mohammed ben Musa, likewise a mathematician and astronomer, who flourished under the Caliph Al Motaded (who reigned A.H. 279-289, A.D. 892-902)." In the introduction to his critical commentary on Robert of Chester's Latin translation of al-Khwārizmī's Algebra, L.C. Karpinski notes that Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Mūsā refers to the eldest of the Banū Mūsā brothers. Karpinski notes in his review on (Ruska 1917) that in (Ruska 1918): "Ruska here inadvertently speaks of the author as Abū Gaʿfar M. b. M., instead of Abū Abdallah M. b. M."

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Toomer 1990
  2. ^ a b c d Hogendijk, Jan P. (1998). "al-Khwarzimi". Pythagoras 38 (2): 4–5. ISSN 0033–4766. http://www.kennislink.nl/web/show?id=116543. [dead link]
  3. ^ a b c Oaks, Jeffrey A.. "Was al-Khwarizmi an applied algebraist?". University of Indianapolis. http://facstaff.uindy.edu/~oaks/MHMC.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-30. 
  4. ^ Berggren 1986
  5. ^ a b Struik 1987, p. 93
  6. ^ Rosen 1831, p. v–vi; Toomer 1990
  7. ^ Daffa 1977
  8. ^ Knuth, Donald (1979). Algorithms in Modern Mathematics and Computer Science. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-11157-3. http://historical.ncstrl.org/litesite-data/stan/CS-TR-80-786.pdf. 
  9. ^ Abu Rahyan Biruni, "Athar al-Baqqiya 'an al-Qurun al-Xaliyyah"(Vestiges of the past: the chronology of ancient nations), Tehran, Miras-e-Maktub, 2001. Original Arabic of the quote: "و أما أهل خوارزم، و إن کانوا غصنا ً من دوحة الفُرس" (pg. 56)
  10. ^ "Iraq After the Muslim Conquest", by Michael G. Morony, ISBN 1593333153 (a 2005 facsimile from the original 1984 book), p. 145
  11. ^ Rashed, Roshdi (1988). "al-Khwārizmī's Concept of Algebra". In Zurayq, Qusṭanṭīn; Atiyeh, George Nicholas; Oweiss, Ibrahim M.. Arab Civilization: Challenges and Responses : Studies in Honor of Constantine K. Zurayk. SUNY Press. p. 108. ISBN 0887066984. http://books.google.com/books?id=JXbXRKRY_uAC&pg=PA108&dq=Qutrubbulli#PPA108,M1 
  12. ^ Dunlop
  13. ^ "al-Khwarizmi". Encyclopædia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9045366. Retrieved 2008-05-30. 
  14. ^ "Khwarizmi, Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Musa al-" in Oxford Islamic Studies Online
  15. ^ a b Rosen, Frederic. The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing "The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, al-Khwārizmī". 1831 English Translation. http://www.wilbourhall.org/index.html#algebra The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing. Retrieved 2009-09-14. 
  16. ^ Karpinski, L. C. (1912). "History of Mathematics in the Recent Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica". American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
  17. ^ Boyer, Carl B. (1991). "The Arabic Hegemony". A History of Mathematics (Second ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. pp. 228. ISBN 0471543977. 
    "The Arabs in general loved a good clear argument from premise to conclusion, as well as systematic organization — respects in which neither Diophantus nor the Hindus excelled."
  18. ^ (Boyer 1991, "The Arabic Hegemony" p. 229) "It is not certain just what the terms al-jabr and muqabalah mean, but the usual interpretation is similar to that implied in the translation above. The word al-jabr presumably meant something like "restoration" or "completion" and seems to refer to the transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation; the word muqabalah is said to refer to "reduction" or "balancing" — that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation."
  19. ^ a b O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Khwarizmi.html .
  20. ^ Rashed, R.; Armstrong, Angela (1994). The Development of Arabic Mathematics. Springer. pp. 11–2. ISBN 0792325656. OCLC 29181926 
  21. ^ Ruska
  22. ^ Berggren 1986, p. 7
  23. ^ a b Kennedy 1956, pp. 26–9
  24. ^ Kennedy 1956, p. 128
  25. ^ "The history of cartography". GAP computer algebra system. http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Cartography.html. Retrieved 2008-05-30. 
  26. ^ Daunicht.
  27. ^ a b Edward S. Kennedy, Mathematical Geography, p. 188, in (Rashed & Morelon 1996, pp. 185–201)
  28. ^ Covington, Richard (2007). Saudi Aramco World, May–June 2007: 17–21. http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200703/the.third.dimension.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-06 

Further reading

Biographical
Algebra
Arithmetic
Astronomy
  • Goldstein, B. R. (1968). Commentary on the Astronomical Tables of Al-Khwarizmi: By Ibn Al-Muthanna. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300004982. 
  • Hogendijk, Jan P. (1991). "Al-Khwārizmī's Table of the "Sine of the Hours" and the Underlying Sine Table". Historia Scientiarum 42: 1–12. 
  • King, David A. (1983). Al-Khwārizmī and New Trends in Mathematical Astronomy in the Ninth Century. New York University: Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies: Occasional Papers on the Near East 2. LCCN 85150177. 
  • Neugebauer, Otto (1962). The Astronomical Tables of al-Khwarizmi. 
  • Rosenfeld, Boris A. (1993). Menso Folkerts and J. P. Hogendijk. ed. ""Geometric trigonometry" in treatises of al-Khwārizmī, al-Māhānī and Ibn al-Haytham". Vestiga mathematica: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Mathematics in Honour of H. L. L. Busard (Amsterdam: Rodopi). ISBN 90-5183-536-1. 
  • Suter, Heinrich. [Ed.]: Die astronomischen Tafeln des Muhammed ibn Mûsâ al-Khwârizmî in der Bearbeitung des Maslama ibn Ahmed al-Madjrîtî und der latein. Übersetzung des Athelhard von Bath auf Grund der Vorarbeiten von A. Bjørnbo und R. Besthorn in Kopenhagen. Hrsg. und komm. Kopenhagen 1914. 288 pp. Repr. 1997 (Islamic Mathematics and Astronomy. 7). ISBN 3-8298-4008-X.
  • Van Dalen, B. Al-Khwarizmi's Astronomical Tables Revisited: Analysis of the Equation of Time.
Jewish calendar
Geography
  • Daunicht, Hubert (1968–1970) (in German). Der Osten nach der Erdkarte al-Ḫuwārizmīs : Beiträge zur historischen Geographie und Geschichte Asiens. Bonner orientalistische Studien. N.S.; Bd. 19. LCCN 71468286. 
  • Mžik, Hans von (1915). "Ptolemaeus und die Karten der arabischen Geographen". Mitteil. D. K. K. Geogr. Ges. In Wien 58: 152. 
  • Mžik, Hans von (1916). "Afrika nach der arabischen Bearbeitung der γεωγραφικὴ ὑφήγησις des Cl. Ptolomeaus von Muh. ibn Mūsa al-Hwarizmi". Denkschriften d. Akad. D. Wissen. In Wien, Phil.-hist. Kl. 59. 
  • Mžik, Hans von (1926). Das Kitāb Ṣūrat al-Arḍ des Abū Ǧa‘far Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ḫuwārizmī. Leipzig. 
  • Nallino, C. A. (1896), "Al-Ḫuwārizmī e il suo rifacimento della Geografia di Tolemo", Atti della R. Accad. dei Lincei, Arno 291, Serie V, Memorie, Classe di Sc. Mor., Vol. II, Rome 
  • Ruska, Julius (1918). "Neue Bausteine zur Geschichte der arabischen Geographie". Geographische Zeitschrift 24: 77–81. 
  • Spitta, W. (1879). "Ḫuwārizmī's Auszug aus der Geographie des Ptolomaeus". Zeitschrift Deutschen Morgenl. Gesell. 33. 
Spherical trigonometry
  • B. A. Rozenfeld. "Al-Khwarizmi's spherical trigonometry" (Russian), Istor.-Mat. Issled. 32-33 (1990), 325-339.

General references

For a more extensive bibliography see: History of mathematics, Mathematics in medieval Islam, and Astronomy in medieval Islam.
Mathematicians
9th century
10th century
11th century
12th century
13th century
14th century
15th century
16th century
Treatises
Concepts
Centers
Influences
Influenced
Astronomers
8th c.
9th c.
10th c.
11th c.
12th c.
13th c.
14th c.
15th c.
16th c.
Works
Instruments
Concepts
Centers
Influences
Influenced
Geographers
9th century
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī • Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī • Ya'qubi
10th century
11th century
12th century
13th century
14th century
15th century
16th century
Works
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Balkhi school • Iraqi school
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Scholars of Khorasan
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Historians & Political figures:



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