AlgebraNumbers & Operations
Al-Khwarizmi
c. 780 – c. 850 · Persia · Baghdad
The man who gave the world the word 'algebra'
Al-Khwarizmi was a Persian scholar at the House of Wisdom in 9th-century Baghdad. The word 'al-jabr' in one of his book titles became the very root of the word algebra, and by laying out systematic procedures for solving equations he turned algebra into a discipline of its own. The Latin form of his own name gave us the word 'algorithm'.
Key contributions
- Established algebra as a discipline
- Systematic methods for solving linear and quadratic equations
- Spread the Hindu-Arabic numerals and the decimal system