BRIEF HISTORY

AL-KHWARIZMI

AIM

To brief you About “The Brief history of Al-Khwarizmi”

SEQ

Life Studies Contribution in Algebra Contribution in Arithmetic Contribution in Astronomy Contributions in Trigonometry Contributions in Geography Jewish CalendarAl Khwarizmi and World Map

LIFE

Al Khwarizmi was born in 720 B.C in Baghdad. He was born in a Persian family. Al-Tabari gave his name as Muhammad ibn Musa al-

Khwārizmī al-Majousi al-Katarbali. Al-Khwārizmī accomplished most of his work in the

period between 813 and 833. 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.

STUDIES

Al-Khwarizmi made contributions to mathematics, geography, astronomy, and cartography.

Some of his work was based on Persian and Babylonian astronomy, Indian numbers, and Greek mathematics.

A major book by Al Khwarizmi was Kitab surat al-ard. He also wrote on mechanical devices like the astrolabe and sundial.

When, in the twelfth century, his works spread to Europe through Latin translations, it had a profound impact on the advance of mathematics in Europe.

PORTRAIT OF AL-KHWARIZMI

TEXTBOOK OF ALGEBRA

The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing is a mathematical book written approximately 830 CE.

The term algebra is derived from the name of one of the basic operations with equations described in this book

The book was translated in. A unique Arabic copy is kept at Oxford and was translated in 1831 by F. Rosen. A Latin translation is kept in Cambridge.

It provided an exhaustive account of solving polynomial equations up to the second degree, and discussed the fundamental methods of "reduction" and "balancing”.

Arithmetic

Al-Khwarizmi's second major work was on the subject of arithmetic, which survived in a Latin translation.

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.

Both "algorithm" and "algorism" are derived from the Latinized forms of al-Khwarizmi's name, Algoritmi and Algorismi, respectively.

ASTRONOMY

Al-Khwārizmī's Zīj al-Sindhind is a work consisting of approximately 37 chapters on calendric and astronomical calculations.

It contains 116 tables with calendric, astronomical and astrological data, as well as a table of sine values.

The work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time.

The original Arabic version is lost, but a version by the Spanish astronomer Maslamah Ibn Ahmad al-Majriti has survived in a Latin translation.

TRIGONOMETRY

Al-Khwārizmī's Zīj al-Sindhind also contained tables for the trigonometric functions of sine's and cosine. A related treatise on spherical trigonometry is also attributed to him.

GEOGRAPHY

Al-Khwārizmī's third major work is his Kitāb Ṣūrat al-Arḍalso known as his Geography.

The book opens with the list of latitudes and longitudes, in order of "weather zones”

Al-Khwārizmī corrected Ptolemy's gross overestimate for the length of the Mediterranean Sea from the Canary Islands to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean sea.

He "also depicted the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as open bodies of water, not land-locked seas as Ptolemy had done in 833.

JEWISH CALENDER

Al-Khwārizmī wrote several other works including a treatise on the Hebrew calendar.

It describes the 19-year intercalation cycle, the rules for determining on what day of the week the first day of the month Tishrī shall fall; calculates the interval between the Jewish era (creation of Adam) and the Seleucid era.

He gives rules for determining the mean longitude of the sun and the moon using the Jewish calendar. Similar material is found in the works of al-Bīrūnī and Maimonides.

AL KHWARIZMI WORLD MAP

He supervised the work of 70 geographers to create a map of the then “known world”. When his work became known in Europe through Latin translations, his influence made a permanent mark on the development of science in the West.