Al-Khwarizmi
780 – 850 Persian mathematician, astronomer
The mathematician who gave us algebra and, through his name, the algorithm.
- Religion
- Muslim; a scholar in the service of the Abbasid caliphate.
- Affiliations
- House of Wisdom in Baghdad. No secret society.
Al-Khwarizmi wrote the founding treatise on algebra, a systematic method for solving equations. His book on Indian numerals spread the decimal system to Europe, and the Latin form of his name gave us the word algorithm. Modern mathematics and computing rest on his work.
In the timeline
- 820 Al-Khwarizmi founds algebra and lends his name to the algorithm central figure