Muhammad al-Khwarizmi

Persian mathematician who established foundational algebraic concepts

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780-850), working at Baghdad's House of Wisdom, revolutionized mathematics through:

• Writing ‘Al-Kitāb al-Mukhtaṣar fī Ḥisāb al-Jabr wal-Muqābalah’ - the first systematic algebra textbook
• Developing algorithmic calculations (term derived from his name)
• Introducing Hindu-Arabic numerals to the Islamic world

His trigonometrical tables enabled precise astronomical calculations, while his geographic work ‘Kitāb Ṣūrat al-Arḍ’ corrected Ptolemy's errors. Modern computer science traces its logical foundations to al-Khwarizmi's algorithmic approaches.

Recent studies at Cambridge University confirm his methods enabled Renaissance scientists to bypass Greek mathematical limitations, accelerating Europe's scientific revolution.