To much of the world he was known by his Latin nickname Algoritmi which became
the origin of the word algorithm.
He pioneered a method for solving problems called al-Jabr.
Today known as algebra. Twelve hundred years ago he published the first
atlas of the known world, wrote the first math textbook
and was calculating the movement to celestial bodies when Europeans were
basically staring up this guy
through toilet paper tubes. His name was Abu Abdullah Muhammad
ibn Musa al-Khawarizmi. But you can just call him al-Khawarizmi.
The man who made possible the math we use today.
Oh also including all the numbers that we use.
(Theme music)
Those most lasting legacy was introducing so-called Arabic numerals
to much to the world.
He wasn't an Arab he was most likely Persian. Born in what is now known as
Uzbekistan around 780,
al-Khawarizmi first appears in historical records as an instructor at
one of the great
ancient Islamic learning institutions Baghdad's House of Wisdom.
Sounds kinda like a theme restaurant owned by celebrity nerds, the House of
Wisdom was actually a crossroads the great civilizations of the ancient
world;
Babylon, Greek, Hindu, Arabic, Persian.
And al-Khawarizmi
like to wet his beak in the knowledge that he had to offer. He studied the
ambitious math at the Greek scientist Ptolemy for example who had tried to
measure the world, but
al-Khawarismi discover Ptolemy's calculations were wrong so he corrected
and reorganized all the data. With new coordinates in the help of some seventy
geographers under his direction, he compiled a book called
The Face of The Earth.
A complete explanation of the geography and cartography of the known world
thought to be the first of its kind.
He was also the official astronomer of the court in Baghdad.
And as part of his duties
he compiled charts of the track the moon in five planets. These tables turned out to
be so useful and accurate that centuries later they would be translated into
Latin and Chinese and circulated around the world. But his real passion
was for mathematics and he eagerly accepted a commission from Muslim
leaders to come up with a text
for the general public about how to do basic calculations like for conducting
traded and making measurements.
The result was a text with the inevitable name, the Compendius book on calculation
by completion and balancing. In it al-Khawarizmi explains how to solve linear
equations in quadratic equations with what he called
al-Jabr or completion by subtracting or dividing an amount from both sides to
find a missing figure.
You know solving for x. It's not that he invented algebra though he's certainly
refined our understanding of it. Instead he codified knowledge from a whole bunch
different traditions especially Greek and
Indian to make life easier for the ninth century equivalent of English majors
everywhere.
In this regard by far his most lasting achievement came from his study of
ancient Indian text. In age 25, he published on the calculation with Hindu numerals
where he described everything he learned about Hindu mathematics.
It was a weird system
with digits from 0 which meant like nothing to 9.
And it used decimal places to denote
increments of tens hundreds and so on. The book didn't exactly fly off the
shelves of the Baghdad`s Barnes & Noble but it would turn out to be one of the most
influential books in history.
Because three hundred years later a copy of it was discovered by an English monk who
fascinated with Muslim scholarship,
translated the research of al-Khawarizmi now called
algorithme into Latin. Soon Europe scholarly elite was
eating it up. The Hindu system was way easier and more intuitive than Roman
numerals.
Which to use database 10 for counting and a base 12
for fractions and had no concept of zero. Men of science began advocating for the
use of what became known as
Arabic numerals. Chief among them Italian mathematician Fibonacci.
who wrote a whole book about them in 1202 but of course medieval Europe,
it wasn't really all about the new ideas with all burning people that
sticks in the inquisitioning.
In 1299 the city of Florence, Italy actually passed a law forbidding
the use of the numerals, not because some anti-Muslim bias. But because
Arabic numerals were just too easy to change. You could make a 6 into an 8.
Or throw a couple zeros after something and make a big profit. It was just a fix of
the quill.
It wasn't until the 1500 that the numbers began to take hold among
merchants as well as scholars.
But by that time al-Khawarizmi was forgotten to history. Which is why we still
call the numbers that the whole world uses today Arabic numerals despite the
fact that the guy we have to thank for them wasn't
Arab and the numbers themselves were Hindu.
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