Al Khwarizmi

ABSTRACT
In this paper, all of us study the life and original contribution of Al-Khwarizmi. It
was noticed that
INTRODUCTION
In mathematics, we have hundreds of branch. The Islamic Empire established

across Persia, the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Iberia, and in parts of India in
the 8th century made significant contributions towards mathematics. Although most
Islamic texts on mathematics were written in Arabic, most of them were not written by
Arabs, since much like the status of Greek in the Hellenistic world, Arabic was used as
the written language of non-Arab scholars throughout the Islamic world at the time.
Persians contributed to the world of Mathematics alongside Arabs. In the 9th century,
the Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Ms al-Khwarizmi wrote several important
books on the Hindu-Arabic numerals and on methods for solving equations. Further
developments in algebra were made by Al-Karaji in his treatise al-Fakhri, where he
extends the methodology to incorporate integer powers and integer roots of unknown
quantities. In the late 11th century, Omar Khayyam wrote Discussions of the Difficulties
in Euclid, a book about what he perceived as flaws in Euclid's Elements, especially the
parallel postulate. In the 13th century, Nasir al-Din Tusi made advances in spherical
trigonometry. However, the most important contribution of the Islamic mathematicians
was the development of algebra; combining Indian and Babylonian material with the
Greek geometry to develop algebra. In Algebra a mathematician substitutes symbols
such as x, y or z for numbers in order to solve mathematical problems.
Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Musa AlKhwarizmi

SUMMARY OF LIFE
After reading the MacTutor History of Mathematics article on Al

Khwarizmi, we acknowledged that Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Musa alKhwarizmi was the grandfather of computer science and the father of
Algebra. Al-Khwarizmi was born around 780 in possibly Baghdad (now in Iraq)
and died there in or around 850. His last name Khwarizmi refers to where he
was born but not many know about his early life, and the exact dates of his
birth and death remain unknown, but we know he was born around 780 CE.
There are a few disagreements regarding al-Khwarizmis life and work.
We now look into the cultural and scientific background of alKhwarizmi.On 14 September 786, Harun al- Rashid was the fifth Caliph of the
Abbasid and he ruled the empire which stretched from the Mediterranean to
India. He had two sons, al-Amin and al-Mamun. Al-Mamun became Caliph and
ruled the empire from Baghdad. He continued the patronage of learning
started by his father and founded an academy called The House of Wisdom
in Baghdad. It is a center for study and research similar to the earlier
Museum in Alexandria.
House of Wisdom had a large library - first famous library established

after the library of Alexandria was destroyed. Its most famous scholars were
the mathematicians Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi and the Banu Musa
who directed the translation of Greek works from Antiquity. They have to
2
translate Greek manuscripts which they may have also studied and to write
on algebra, geometry and astronomy.
The modern word algorithm is derived from the name, al-Khwarizmi,

the best mathematician of his age, thanks to his algebra treatise, Hisab aljabrwal-muqabala, (a book showing how to solve equations and problems
derived from ordinary life) which means The Compendious Book on
Calculation by Completion and Balancing, which later evolved into algebra,
was the first written text on the subject. In al-Khwarizmis time, algebra was
a practical system for solving all kinds of problems in cases of inheritance,
contracts, surveying, tax collection, legacies, partition, lawsuits, and trade,
and in all their dealings with one another, or where the measuring of lands,
the digging of canals, geometrical computations, and other objects of various
sorts and kinds are concerned. Al-jabr was about removing the negative
terms from an equation, while al-Muqabala meant balancing the values of
an equation across an equal sign. After al-Khwarizmi had understood the
natural numbers, he introduced the first part of his book which is the solution
of equations.
AL-KHWARIZMI CONTRIBUTION TO MAHEMATICS

Al-Khwarizmis 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-jabrwa'l-muqabala.
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
Algebra
Main article: Al-Kitb al-mukhtaarfisb al-jabrwa-l-muqbala Compendious
Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing')
The book was written with the encouragement of the Caliph al-Ma'mun. 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. It provided an exhaustive
account of solving polynomial equations up to the second degree, 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.
Al-Khwarizmis 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) by dividing out the coefficient of the square and using the
two operations al-jabr (restoring or completion) and al-muqbala
("balancing").
According to al-Khwarizmi, there are three kinds of quantities: simple
numbers like 4 or 77, then the root, which is the unknown, x, to be found in a
particular problem, and the mal (in English, wealth) which is the square of
the root in the problem (Al-Daffa, 55). With these definitions of quantities, alKhwarizmi classified problems into six standard forms (a, b and c are all
positive numbers):
squares equal roots (ax2 = bx)
squares equal number (ax2 = c)
roots equal number (bx = c)

4
squares and roots equal number (ax2 + bx = c)
squares and number equal roots (ax2 + c = bx)
roots and number equal squares (bx + c = ax2)
Al-jabr (completion) is the process of removing negative units, roots and

squares from the equation by adding the same quantity to each side. For
example:x2 + 14 = x + 5
x2 + 9 = x
Al-muqbala (balancing) is the process of bringing quantities of the same

type to the same side of the equation. For example:x2 + 14 = x + 5
x2 + 9 = x.
The above discussion uses modern mathematical notation for the types of
problems which the book discusses. However, in al-Khwarizmis day, most of
this notation had not yet been invented, so he had to use ordinary text to
present problems and their solutions.
In modern notation this process, with 'x' the "thing" (shay') or "root", is given
by the steps,
(10-x) 2=81x
X2-20x+100=81x
X2+100=101x
Let the roots of the equation be 'p' and 'q'. Then (p+q)/2=50, pq=100 and
5
(p-q)/2=((p+q)/2)2-pq = (2550 -100=49

So a root is given by:
X=50-49=1
Arithmetic
Al-Khwarizmis second major work was on the subject of arithmetic,
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.
Trigonometry
Al-Khwrizm'sZj al-Sindhind also contained tables for the trigonometric
functions of sines and cosine. A related treatise on spherical trigonometry is
also attributed to him.
ENDING
Our group has already discussed the varying views of the importance of alKhwarizmi's algebra and other things which was his most important
contribution to mathematics. Let us end this article with a quote by

Mohammad Kahn :-
In the foremost rank of mathematicians of all time stands Al-Khwarizmi. He

composed the oldest works on arithmetic and algebra. They were the
principal source of mathematical knowledge for centuries to come in the East
and the West. The work on arithmetic first introduced the Hindu numbers to
Europe, as the very name algorism signifies; and the work on algebra gave
the name to this important branch of mathematics in the European world.
SOURCE
http://www.mathsisgoodforyou.com/people/alkhwarizmi.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu%E1%B8%A5ammad_ibn_M%C5%ABs
%C4%81_al-Khw%C4%81rizm%C4%AB
http://www.ismaili.net/mirrors/57_sina/khawariz.htm

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ABSTRACT

In mathematics, we have hundreds of branch. The Islamic Empire established

Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Musa AlKhwarizmi

After reading the MacTutor History of Mathematics article on Al

House of Wisdom had a large library - first famous library established

The modern word algorithm is derived from the name, al-Khwarizmi,

AL-KHWARIZMI CONTRIBUTION TO MAHEMATICS

He assisted a project to determine the circumference of the Earth and in

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)

Al-jabr (completion) is the process of removing negative units, roots and

Al-muqbala (balancing) is the process of bringing quantities of the same

(p-q)/2=((p+q)/2)2-pq = (2550 -100=49

Al-Khwarizmis second major work was on the subject of arithmetic,

Al-Khwarizmi's work on arithmetic was responsible for introducing the Arabic

contribution to mathematics. Let us end this article with a quote by

In the foremost rank of mathematicians of all time stands Al-Khwarizmi. He

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