Khwarizm
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi came from Khwarizm on the Oxus river in Central Asia.
Al-Khwarizmi's Book
A small book from Baghdad that changed the world's arithmetic — the story of algebra in twelve cards.
The House of Wisdom
He worked at Baghdad's House of Wisdom in al-Ma'mun's time among translators and astronomers.
The problem
People stumbled over inheritance and trade sums; he wanted a method for everyone.
The book
He wrote a small treatise called: The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.
Al-jabr
Al-jabr means completion: move the missing term across so the equation is whole.
Al-muqabala
Al-muqabala means balancing: subtract like terms from both sides until the equation is simple.
The equations
He gathered the first- and second-degree equations, classified them and solved them.
The digits
He wrote another book on Hindu reckoning, from which Europe learned the digits 0–9.
The algorithm
His name was twisted in Latin to Algorithmus — the source of the word algorithm.
The computer
Every step a computer follows today is called an algorithm — named for him.
The geography
He corrected Ptolemy's map and wrote The Image of the Earth at the House of Wisdom.
The legacy
From a small book in Baghdad came the algebra every school in the world now teaches.
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- Khwarizm
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi came from Khwarizm on the Oxus river in Central Asia. - The House of Wisdom
He worked at Baghdad's House of Wisdom in al-Ma'mun's time among translators and astronomers. - The problem
People stumbled over inheritance and trade sums; he wanted a method for everyone. - The book
He wrote a small treatise called: The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing. - Al-jabr
Al-jabr means completion: move the missing term across so the equation is whole. - Al-muqabala
Al-muqabala means balancing: subtract like terms from both sides until the equation is simple. - The equations
He gathered the first- and second-degree equations, classified them and solved them. - The digits
He wrote another book on Hindu reckoning, from which Europe learned the digits 0–9. - The algorithm
His name was twisted in Latin to Algorithmus — the source of the word algorithm. - The computer
Every step a computer follows today is called an algorithm — named for him. - The geography
He corrected Ptolemy's map and wrote The Image of the Earth at the House of Wisdom. - The legacy
From a small book in Baghdad came the algebra every school in the world now teaches.