Back to all profiles
Science & scholarship
Mathematician; the origin of the words algebra and algorithm
Life
780 – 850
Region
Khorezm

Science & scholarship

Al-Khwarizmi

Mathematician; the origin of the words algebra and algorithm

From Khwarezm, working in Baghdad's House of Wisdom. His book on al-jabr gave algebra its name, and the Latin rendering of his own name gave us algorithm.

Key achievements

  • Wrote the treatise that named and systematised algebra
  • Introduced Hindu-Arabic decimal numerals to scholarship in the Islamic world
  • Produced revised geographical tables correcting Ptolemy