One of the men who have contributed much to science is a Muslim named Mohammed Ibn Musa abu Djafar Al-Khwarizmi. This man was a mathematician, astronomer and geographer and was probably born in the Persian city of Khwarizm. This city is located in the southeast of the Aral Sea and had been conquered 70 years before it was born by the Arabs. Al-Khwarizmi's name means Son of Moses.
In this article we will tell you about all of Al-Khwarizmi 's feats and discoveries as well as his biography.
Biography
He was born in 780. In 820 he was called to Baghdad (what we know today as Iraq) by the Abbasid caliph Al Mamun. This man was known to all thanks to the "Thousand and One Nights." The House of Wisdom was built to enrich science and other academies for science were also created. Some of the most important philosophical works were translated into Arabic. These academies also had astronomical observatories.
This entire scientific and multicultural environment made Al-Khwarizmi's learning much more productive. He ultimately decided to dedicate all his treatises to algebra and astronomy. These decisions had significant consequences for the future development of science in Europe, particularly in Spain. In this context, it is interesting to learn more about the impact of his work on astronomy.
He traveled through Afghanistan, southern Russia, and Byzantium. For many people, he was considered the best mathematician of his time. And it is that mathematics is an invention developed by the human being. Therefore, although it is difficult for everyone, it cannot be more difficult than human understanding, since it is created by us. With that philosophy, Al-Khwarizmi was able to work in mathematics with great skill.
He died in Baghdad around the year 850. He is remembered as one of the greatest mathematicians in history. His biography of Al-Khwarizmi highlights his connection to the development of geometry and his influence on modern astrophysics.
Al-Khwarizmi Works
He produced ten works, almost all of which are known either indirectly or through later Latin translations. For some of his works, only the title is known, and the translations of the others were done in Toledo. This scientist dedicated himself to compiling all the necessary knowledge from the Greeks and Hindus, influenced by ancient science . He primarily focused on mathematics, but also delved into astronomy, geography, history, and even astrology.
You have to consider that in those times, science wasn't as developed. A person could dedicate a lot of time to several subjects and still make progress in them. This is because there wasn't a lot of information or specialization. This is why a person could be perfectly multicultural and an expert in several subjects. Today, there's a wealth of information on each subject. You can dedicate time to one subject or another. But if you really want to be an expert in one, you can't focus on several at once, because you wouldn't have time to know everything about it. This is mainly because new studies and discoveries are released daily, and you have to be constantly updating yourself. In this sense, the progress made today is remarkable.
His most famous and widely used work was the Astronomical Tables. These tables were based on knowledge acquired by the Hindus and recorded there. They include algorithms for calculating dates and trigonometric functions such as sine and cotangent.
Only the 12th-century Latin version of his arithmetic survives. This work describes in great detail the entire Hindu system of positional numerals in base 10. Thanks to this system of calculation, many more methods for performing calculations to achieve different objectives can be understood. It is also known that there was a method for finding square roots, although it does not appear in this Latin version.
Algebra treatise
His discoveries in mathematics were essential for introducing numeral systems to the Arab world and, later, to all of Europe. These systems reached us through the Arabs and should be called Indo-Arabic, because they based them on the knowledge of the Hindus. This system was the first to begin using zero as a digit.
His treatise on algebra is a concise introduction to calculus. In this treatise, one can observe how certain rules are employed to complete equations. It also demonstrates the need to simplify equations to make them easier to solve. Although mathematics is complex, it remains a science where the simplest path is always sought. Formulas are typically reduced as much as possible to guarantee high-quality, highly accurate data without requiring excessive calculations.
In his treatise on algebra, he also helped to systematize all the solutions to quadratic equations. These equations also appear in geometry, commercial calculations, and inheritances, so it was very useful for the time. Al-Khwarizmi's oldest book was known by the title Kitab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala and is the one that gives rise to and defines the word algebra, which is related to the development of modern mathematics.
These terms were named to understand the terms used in the negative and positive coefficients of all known calculations. Translated into Spanish, the title of the work could be "The Book of Restoring and Equating" or "The Art of Solving Equations." It is fascinating to observe how these principles are reflected in the .
Treatise on astronomy and work on geography
On the other hand, Al-Khwarizmi also wrote a treatise on astronomy. Only the two Latin versions survive. This treatise included studies of calendars and the actual positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets. Tables of sines and tangents were applied to spherical astronomy. We can also find astrological tables, calculations of parallax and eclipses, and lunar visibility in this treatise, which is crucial to the development of modern astronomy.
He also dedicated himself to geography, producing a work called Kitab Surat-al-Ard. In this work, he corrects Ptolemy's findings regarding Africa and the Orient. He compiled a list of the latitudes and longitudes of cities, mountains, rivers, islands, different geographical regions, and even seas. This data served as the basis for creating a map of the world as it was known at the time.
As you can see, Al-Khwarizmi made important contributions in the world of science and, today, there are many applications that we have in mathematics thanks to him.
