Islamic Golden Age: Mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

 

Islamic Golden Age: Mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, whose work was called 'dangerous' and 'magical'

The Khwarizmi was born around 780 AD and, as their name suggests, they belonged to Khwarazm, a province in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan.

is being reproduced today.

In The Golden Age of Islam', writer and broadcaster Jim Al Khalil tells us about al-Khwarizmi. Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and scholar associated with the Bayt al-Tiamat in Baghdad. During this period, Baited Hikmat was a well-known center of scientific research and education and the best minds of the Golden Islamic Age congregated here. Al-Khwarizmi was born in Persia around 780 AD and was among the learned men who had the opportunity to work in the Bayt al-Hikamat under the guidance of Caliph al-Mamun, son of Caliph Harun al-Rashid.  Suppose a person frees two slaves in a state of illness. One of them is worth 300 dirhams and the other 500 dirhams. The slave whose price was 300 dirhams dies after some time and leaves only one daughter as his heir. Then the owner of those slaves also dies and their heir is also his only daughter. A dying slave leaves property worth 400 dirhams in Turkey. So now, how much of Turkey will come to everyone's share?'This perplexing math question is taken from a book that was written in the early 9th century AD. This issue provides guidance on the distribution of property among heirs. This book written in the Arabic language is known worldwide by its title 'Kitab al-Jabr'. The author of this book is the subject of our writing today and he was Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi who mastered many subjects in the Middle Ages. I heard his name for the first time in a history subject when I was studying in a school in Iraq.

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In this book, he writes for the first time on the subject of 'algebra', a word taken directly from the title of the book and given the status of a sub-discipline of mathematics. The Khawarizmi was born around 780 AD and as their name suggests, they belonged to Khwarizm, a province in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan.

 

We have very little information about his life, but we do know that he came to Baghdad at the beginning of the ninth century. At that time, Baghdad was the capital of a vast Islamic empire ruled by the powerful Abbasid Caliphate. In the second decade of the 9th century, Caliph al-Mamun built observatories in Baghdad for astronomy research. He worked for Caliph al-Mamun. Caliph Mamun was one of the great figures who understood the importance of research and scientific studies in history and translated Greek books into Arabic.

Al-Khwarizmi worked in the Caliph's 'Bayt al-Hikamat', an organization that sounds completely fictitious. It was the center of original research in translation and scientific studies and gathered here the great minds of an era known as the Golden Age of Arabic Science.

The word Arabic is used here because most of the books were written in Arabic during this period. After all, it was not only the official language of the empire but also the holy book of Muslims Quran was revealed in this language. These scientific books covered various scientific fields including philosophy, medicine, mathematics, optics, astronomy, etc. Among the great scientific achievements of this period, we will mention some achievements that were directly related to Al-Khwarizmi.

In the second decade of the 9th century, Caliph Al-Mamun built observatories in Baghdad for astronomy research. A year or two later, a critical review of Greek astronomy began. During this time, many researchers under the guidance of al-Khwarizmi made several observations related to the sun and the moon. Meanwhile, a table of longitude and latitude of 22 stars at the same location was made. Al-Ma'mun meanwhile ordered the construction of another observatory on the slopes of Jabal Qasyun from which the city of Damascus was visible. The purpose of building this observatory was to collect more data in this regard.

 

At the end of this work, al-Khwarizmi and his colleagues compiled tables of statistics relating to the location of several stars.

Another outstanding project undertaken by these scholars was a more lofty vision. Under the guidance of al-Khwarizmi, several researchers made several observations related to the sun and the moon

The Greek astronomer Tonomy recorded everything he knew about the geography of the world in his famous book 'The Geography'. It is said that the Arabic translation of his work sparked the Islamic world's interest in geography.

Al-Ma'mun instructed his scholars to make a new map of the world because Tonomy's map did not include important Islamic cities such as Mecca or the capital Baghdad. During the reign of Tunomy, Mecca was not so important and Baghdad did not exist at that time.

Al-Khwarizmi and his colleagues decided to measure the distance between these two cities. In this regard, they took measurements and statistics during eclipses. The distance they calculated between these two cities in this ancient period was less than two percent wrong compared to the current data. He then tried to find out the lines of other important places from which the location of the central point of these places could be known.

For example, his map showed the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as open passages of water, not land-locked oceans, as Tonomy had suggested in his book.

Al-Khwarizmi's book 'Surat Al-Arz' i.e. the picture of the world has given him the honor of being the first geographer of Islam. This book was completed in 833 AD. This is also the year of the death of Caliph Al-Ma'mun. This book contained tables of latitude and longitude of 500 cities. In this book, different places were divided into towns, rivers, mountains, seas, and islands. In each table, these places were arranged from south to north. Al-Khwarizmi described the geography of the Nile and its course in a book

However, all these achievements are dwarfed by his achievements in the field of mathematics. Nizam Ashari (decimal number system) was introduced in the Muslim world due to his writings on numerals. His book 'Album waltafreeq bi ilhind' is of great importance in the sub-field of mathematics.

 

This book was written around 825 AD, but there is no authentic Arabic translation of it and the title of the book is only a guess.

However, it was probably the first book written on the decimal system to be translated into Latin. It begins with these words written in Latin: Al-Khwarizmi said that... In this book, various instructions related to calculations are given and from here the word Algorithm came into being, which is Al-Khwarizmi's way of speaking in Latin.

This and earlier translations of al-Khwarizmi's work were criticized in Europe, a time when Europe was going through the Dark Ages. It is for this reason that Khwarazmi's work was termed 'dangerous' or 'magical'.

His greatest work was certainly his algebra book. Al-Khwarizmi was a follower of the ancient Persian Zoroastrian religion and we believe he later converted to Islam. On the very first page of Kitab al-Jabr, it is mentioned Bismillah ur Rahman ur Rahim (In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Merciful). Even today, most of the books written by Muslim writers begin with this sentence.

However, it is also possible that al-Khwarizmi wrote this while keeping the tradition because he did not want to offend a Muslim caliph who strongly supported him. In this book, al-Khwarizmi consolidated the obscure rules of mathematics that only a few people knew about.

He then developed these rules into a set of guidelines that could be used to resolve day-to-day problems in areas such as inheritance, commerce, and agriculture. "Al-Khwarizmi was a follower of the ancient Persian Zoroastrian religion and we believe he later converted to Islam."

Here it is also important to appreciate the Muslim mathematicians who came after al-Khwarizmi who also publicized his work and provided evidence of its authenticity after the impact his work had on Europe.

His book was translated into Latin twice in the 12th century. Once by Robert Ochester of Great Britain and once by Gerard of Cremona in Italy.

His work was known to Fabanacci, who was undoubtedly the greatest mathematician of the Middle Ages. He has also referred to Al-Khwarizmi's work in his well-known book 'Labor Abachi'. Here we need to be careful not to credit al-Khwarizmi with inventing a branch of mathematics, just because the name we use today for it, 'algebra', is the name of al-Khwarizmi's book. came into existence from

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For example, there is evidence that Greek and Babylonian mathematicians were solving 'algebraic equations' long before al-Khwarizmi. Apart from this, before him, the great Greek mathematician Diophantus and Hindu mathematician Brahmagupta also worked in this regard. Couldn't the title of this sub-field be attributed to his books? Not to me. This is because al-Khwarizi held that his book was a manual for how numerical transformations could be done through algebra. However, their purpose was greater than that. He explained that the purpose of his book was to explain what is most simple and useful in arithmetic, such as the need for men to deal with the judicial system in the distribution of inheritance, trade, and the division of properties.

Also, their interrelationships where land surveying, canal digging, geometrical computations, and other such problems required mathematics. The Algebra book is divided into two parts. As a theoretical physicist, the first part contains the most interesting material for me because here al-Khwarizmi lays down the rules of the algebra. and steps of solving questions and using different algorithms to solve various equations. Each equation is accompanied by a pictorial proof of their answer.

The second part of the book deals with the use of his methods to find solutions to everyday problems as mentioned above. However, this book is very different from the books available today on Algebra. Instead of filling the pages of his book with symbols and anecdotes, he explained it all in the most common language. Al-Khwarizmi's algebra is very close to the algebra used today (file photo).

This meant that what could have been conveyed in two lines by algebraic symbols was conveyed by an explanation based on two pages.

 

If I were to tell you that Diaphantes and Hindu mathematicians were explaining their equations by fundamental symbols long before al-Khwarizmi, that al-Khwarizmi and his algebra could not go beyond quadratic equations, that Diaphantes solved more complex problems. Searched, and al-Khwarizmi's methods of solving algebra questions were also outdated, such as the method of solving 'coupling the square', so the arguments in support of them fall into disrepair. I have also heard the argument that al-Khwarizmi's popularity is. After all, his book popularized algebra because he made it so universal that many people could use it. However, this is a weak argument.

We can also say that Stephen Hawking's fame is due to his book 'A Brief History of Time' and not to his important research in cosmology and his theories about black holes.

On the contrary, it is not important in this debate who used the symbols, whether there was any geometric evidence, how complex the equations were, and whether they were written down or not. However, what Al-Khwarizmi did for the first time and which makes him unique is a seemingly small thing but very important. That is, instead of solving specific questions, Al-Khwarizmi came up with common-sense rules by which they could be solved, thus solving equations in a step-by-step manner, i.e., through algorithms.

In this way, Al-Khwarizmi ensured that algebra could be seen as a separate subject and not just a technique for manipulating figures. It is like that on the one hand you give specific examples and leave it to the readers will conclude this stage that they can solve other problems while on the other hand, Al-Khwarizmi did this stage. Explained in a common language. They later explain it through specific numbers of course, but the steps they take to solve it are considered common sense.

Although al-Khwarizmi explained algebra using words instead of symbols, as Diaphanes had done before him, al-Khwarizmi's algebra is very close to the algebra used today. Al-Khwarizmi died in 858, but his place belongs to the mathematician who introduced the sub-discipline of mathematics in the presence of arithmetic and geometry.

George Sarton, the great historian of science, is famous for writing the multi-volume book 'The Introduction to Science'. In this book, he divides the history of science into several sections and each section covers a half-century named after the most important scientist of that period.

In it, the period from 800 to 850 AD is titled 'Period of Al-Khwarizmi'.