Al-Khwarizmi

Al-Khwarizmi was a Persian mathematician and astronomer. He was born around 780 AD in present-day Uzbekistan. He is called the father of algebra. The word algorithm comes from his name.

Early Life

Al-Khwarizmi lived during the Islamic Golden Age. He worked at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, a famous center of learning. He studied mathematics, astronomy, and geography. He was one of the most brilliant scholars of his time.

Big Discoveries

Al-Khwarizmi wrote a book that introduced algebra to the world. The word algebra comes from the Arabic title of his book. He also helped introduce Hindu-Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3...) to the Western world. The word algorithm comes from the Latin version of his name.

Fun Facts

• The word algebra comes from the title of his book, Al-Jabr.
• The word algorithm comes from the Latin spelling of his name.
• He worked at the famous House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

Did You Know?

Without Al-Khwarizmi, we might not use the numbers 0 through 9 that we use every day. He helped spread the Hindu-Arabic numeral system from India to the Arab world and then to Europe. Before this, Europeans used Roman numerals, which made math much harder.