Project 4: Mathematician/Theologian
Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was born around the year 780 and died around the year 850. He was born in the town of Khwarizm in Khorasan province of Uzbekistan. His family moved soon afterward, to a place near Baghdad, where he accomplished most of his work in the period between 813 and 833. (biographybase.com) He is known as a Persian scientist, mathematician, and author. He was also Muslim. Muhammad developed the concept of the algorithm in mathematics. He also made major contributions to the fields of algebra, trigonometry, astronomy, geography and cartography. (biographybase.com) His systematic and logical approach to solving linear and quadratic equations gave shape to the discipline of algebra.
Mathematics is the metaphor against which all other sciences are checked according to Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī. Sciences “like astronomy and physics could not have developed without the foundation of mathematics and algebra” (themuslimtimes.org) by him and other Muslim mathematicians and astronomers. He was the author of about a half dozen astronomical works, including a book well known in the mathematics world entitled Al-jabr w'al muqabala that gave the name al-jabr to the branch of mathematics that is now known by its modern spelling as algebra. (bookrags.com) Al-Khwarizmi's algebra was based on the earlier work of the Hindu mathematician Brahmagupta. His work was also influence from Babylonia and Greek mathematics.
Al-Khwarizmi “may not have invented algebra” (themuslimtimes.org) in the modern sense, the credit goes to the Hindus for first practicing this mathematical art, but he did introduced algebra to the West. He was dazzled by Hindu mathematics. Seeing the vast potential of its numeric and decimal systems, he “wrote several works that introduced Hindu math to Islam” (themuslimtimes.org). The numbers were so easy to use that they soon became the standard throughout the Muslim world. The most astounding number the Arabs showed them was not a number at all, but the lack of one: zero. Muslim mathematicians “represented this lack of number by a dot or small circle” (themuslimtimes.org). They instead called it sifr which meant an empty object. This word was the source of the English ‘zero’ as well as “cipher.” Sift solved a lot of problems in mathematics. It “allowed for the expression of difference between two equal quantities as well as positional notation” (themuslimtimes.org), where the digit’s position has a value itself which, combining with the value of the digit, creates the number’s value. It was a bold new step in abstraction that led to the higher mathematics of the Renaissance.
Al-Khwarizmi not only made many contributions to mathematics but he also gave mankind the concept of zero and Arab numerals. Before him the Roman numerals were actually alphabets like X, C, L, XII etc. It was not possible to make simple additions. Roman numbers were used in Europe until the middle ages. Today “simple additions appear as common sense to us” (themuslimtimes.org) but in the past vast majority of population could not do simple calculations. There used to be “specialists like modern day accountants who were in charge of the tedious tasks of addition and subtraction” (themuslimtimes.org), and earned their living as such. The very “first step in the development of science was accurate quantification” (themuslimtimes.com) of different parameters. Carly Firoina, Ex CEO of Hewlett-Packard, had this to say in 2001, “Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to Islamic civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians.” Sciences like astronomy and physics could not have developed without the foundation of mathematics and algebra.