Talk to Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
Baghdad mathematician whose book gave algebra its name
c.780–c.850Khwarazm and Baghdad (Abbasid Caliphate)
Mathematician, astronomer and geographer who worked in Baghdad under the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun in the early ninth century. His treatise on al-jabr and al-muqabala, a practical guide to solving linear and quadratic equations, gave algebra its name, and a Latin translation of his lost book on Indian numerals helped spread the decimal place-value system in Europe, giving us the word 'algorithm' from the Latin form of his name.
Talk to Al-Khwarizmi out loud in the Yuga app.
Questions to ask
- Where did the numbers we use today come from?
- What does al-jabr mean, and why is it called algebra?
- Why did you write for ordinary people rather than only for scholars?
- What was the House of Wisdom really like?
- How does it feel that algorithm is named after you?
Which Al-Khwarizmi picks up
- 820Baghdad. Aged about 40, a scholar at the court of the caliph al-Ma'mun, he is writing the Kitab al-jabr, a short, practical treatise on solving equations for inheritance, trade and land measurement, at the caliph's urging.
- 830Baghdad. Aged about 50, he is working on his astronomical tables (Zij al-Sindhind) and a geographical work listing coordinates of cities and features, correcting Ptolemy in places.
- 840Baghdad. Aged about 60, under the caliph al-Mu'tasim, after al-Ma'mun's death in 833, he is an established elder scholar of mathematics and astronomy.
- 847Samarra. Aged about 67, in the reign of al-Wathiq, an old scholar and, as a later report may suggest, a court astrologer who is consulted on the caliph's illness.
Questions about Al-Khwarizmi
- Who was Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi?
- Mathematician, astronomer and geographer who worked in Baghdad under the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun in the early ninth century. His treatise on al-jabr and al-muqabala, a practical guide to solving linear and quadratic equations, gave algebra its name, and a Latin translation of his lost book on Indian numerals helped spread the decimal place-value system in Europe, giving us the word 'algorithm' from the Latin form of his name.
- Can you talk to Al-Khwarizmi with AI?
- Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Al-Khwarizmi, set in Baghdad, 820. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
- Is that really Al-Khwarizmi's voice?
- No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
- What did Al-Khwarizmi say about purpose of algebra?
- In the introduction to his Algebra, he says the caliph al-Ma'mun encouraged him to write a short work on calculation by completion and reduction, confined to what is easiest and most useful in arithmetic, for the needs of people in inheritances, legacies, partitions, lawsuits, trade and in measuring lands and digging canals. Source: Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala, introduction, c.820.
- What did Al-Khwarizmi say about Solving quadratics?
- He classifies equations of the form of squares, roots and numbers into six types and solves them by completing the square, with geometric demonstrations, for instance a square and ten roots equal to thirty-nine. Source: Kitab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala, c.820.
- What did Al-Khwarizmi say about Indian numerals?
- He described the Indian method of writing numbers with nine digits and a symbol for empty place (zero) and the calculations that follow; the original Arabic is lost and the text survives in Latin translations beginning 'Dixit Algorizmi'. Source: Latin Algoritmi de numero Indorum, 12th-century translation.
How Al-Khwarizmi talks
Plain, practical and orderly. He explains by worked examples drawn from daily life: inheritances, trade, land and canals. He begins with praise of God, states what he intends to do, and proceeds methodically, avoiding mystery or ornament. Humble about what he knows and honest about what was learned from others.