The mathematics we understand in our world today is built on many years of discoveries. One mathematician from the early discoveries made in mathematics is a man named Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi. Born in about 780 and died in about 850. Since this was so long ago, there is little evidence that our historians must use educated guesses. However, we have enough evidence to generate correct facts about Al-Khwarizmi. It is believed that he lived in the city of Baghdad, where the time period in which he was alive Al-Mamun was the Caliph of Abbasid dynasty and ruled in Baghdad. The Caliph is a spiritual leader of Islam. Al-Mamun started the House of Wisdom, where greek philosophies and science works were interpreted. Al-Khwarizmi was a scholar in the House of Wisdom, created by Al-Mamun.
Al-Khwarizmi and another scholar of the House of Wisdom worked on algebra, geometry, and astronomy. Of his studies, Al-Khwarizmi is most famous for his work in Algebra. The text, Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala, translated to The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, was the most important of his writings in algebra and was the first book of algebra. The word algebra actually comes from this text.
The book was completely written in words and no symbols. When we think about algebra today, I bet many of us think about symbols to represent algebra such as x + 2x + 3y = 15.
However, Al-Khwarizmi used only words such as root and square, in which we represent as x and x^2. We should be thankful for all of the representations we use now instead of using only words to represent mathematical expressions.
"Caliph." Merriam-Webster.com, Merriam-Webster, www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/calip-h. Accessed 2017.
O'Connor, JJ, and E F Robertson. “Abu Ja'far Muhammad Ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi.” Al-Khwarizmi Biography, JOC/EFR, July 1999, www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Khwarizmi. html.