Prometheus

BIOGRAPHY :
Muhammad ibn Musa Al- Hawarizmi

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (Persian: محمد بن موسى خوارزمی‎; c. 780 – c. 850), formerly Latinized as Algoritmi, was a Persian scholar who produced works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography under the patronage of the Caliph Al-Ma'mun of the Abbasid Caliphate.^[5]:668 Around 820 AD he was appointed as the astronomer and head of the library of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

Al-Khwarizmi's popularizing treatise on algebra (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, ca. 813-833 CE) presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations in Arabic. One of his principal achievements in algebra was his demonstration of how to solve quadratic equations by completing the square, for which he provided geometric justifications. Because he was the first to treat algebra as an independent discipline and introduced the methods of "reduction" and "balancing" (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), he has been described as the father or founder of algebra. The term "algebra" comes from the operation Al-Khwarizmi called al-jabr, and a mangled transliteration of his name gave rise to the terms Algorism and algorithm. His name is also the origin of (Spanish) guarismo and of (Portuguese) algarismo, both meaning digit.

In the 12th century, Latin translations of his textbook on arithmetic (Algorithmo de Numero Indorum) which codified the various Indian numerals, introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world.

In addition to his best-known works, he revised Ptolemy's Geography, listing the longitudes and latitudes of various cities and localities. He further produced a set of astronomical tables and wrote about calendaric works, as well as the astrolabe and the sundial.

Few details of al-Khwārizmī's life are known with certainty. He was born in a Persian family and Ibn al-Nadim gives his birthplace as Khwarezm 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-Qutrubbullicould indicate he might instead have come from Qutrubbul (Qatrabbul), a viticulture district near Baghdad. However, Rashed^[19] 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 conjunction '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.

However, Rashed put a rather different interpretation on the same words by Al-Tabari:

... Al-Tabari's words should read: "Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi and al-Majusi al-Qutrubbulli ...", (and that there are two people al-Khwarizmi and al-Majusi al-Qutrubbulli): the letter "wa" was omitted in the early copy. This would not be worth mentioning if a series of conclusions about al-Khwarizmi's personality, occasionally even the origins of his knowledge, had not been drawn. In his article ([1]) G J Toomer, with naive confidence, constructed an entire fantasy on the error which cannot be denied the merit of making amusing reading.

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 Muslim 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-Ma’mūn, where he studied the sciences and mathematics, which included the translation of Greek and Sanskrit scientific manuscripts.

Douglas Morton 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.

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 book on the subject, "The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing".

On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals written about 820, was principally responsible for spreading the Hindu–Arabic numeral systemthroughout 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.

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.

sa sankyu~~