Famous Scientists of Uzbekistan Muhammad Musa Al-KHWARAZMI (Al-Khwārizmī) : born around 783,
at Khwarezm in Greater Khorasan (modern Xorazm Region, Uzbekistan). He died
around
850
at
Bagdad.
He
was
a Persian mathematician, astronomer and geographer during
the Abbasid
Caliphate, a scholar in the House of Wisdom, Academy of Sciences located
in Baghdad.
formerly Latinized as Algoritmi,
was
In
the
12th
century, Latin translations
of his
work on
the Indian
numerals introduced
the decimal positional number system to the Western world. Al-Khwārizmī’s The
Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing presented the
first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations in Arabic. In
Renaissance Europe, he was considered the original inventor ofalgebra, although it
is now known that his work is based on older Indian or Greek sources. He
revised Ptolemy‘s Geography and wrote on astronomy and astrology.
Some words reflect the importance of al-Khwārizmī’s contributions to
mathematics. “Algebra” is derived from al-jabr, one of the two operations he used
to
solve quadratic
equations. Algorism and algorithm stem
from Algoritmi,
the Latin form of his name. His name is also the origin of (Spanish) guarismo[ and
of (Portuguese) algarismo, both meaning digit.
Al-Khwārizmī’s
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”.