Text: Khwarizmi, al- in full Muhammad Ibn Musa Al-khwarizmi b. c. 780,, Baghdad d. c. 850 Muslim mathematician and astronomer whose major works introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and the concepts of algebra into European mathematics. He lived in Baghdad under the caliphates of al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim in the first golden age of Islamic science. His work on elementary mathematics, Kitab al-jabr wa al-muqabalah ("The Book of Integration and Equation"), was translated into Latin in the 12th century and originated the term algebra. The Kitab al-jabr is a compilation of rules for arithmetical solutions of linear and quadratic equations, for elementary geometry, and for inheritance problems concerning the distribution of money according to proportions. The work was based on a long tradition originating in Babylonian mathematics of the early 2nd millennium BC and traceable through Hellenistic, Hebrew, and Hindu treatises. Its elementary and practical nature contributed to its survival when other works on the same subject were lost. Another work on Hindu-Arabic numerals is preserved only in a Latin translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum ("Al-Khwarizmi Concerning the Hindu Art of Reckoning"). From the title originated the term algorithm. Al-Khwarizmi also compiled a set of astronomical tables, based largely on the Sindhind, an Arabic version of the Sanskrit work Brahma-siddhanta (7th century AD), but also showing Greek influence. http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/7/0,5716,46427+1+45366,00.html

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