Al-Khwarizmi

Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī
A stamp issued September 6, 1983 in the Soviet Union, commemorating al-Khwārizmī's (approximate) 1200th birthday.
Born	c. 780
Died	c. 850

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (Persian: محمد بن موسى خوارزمی, Arabic: محمد بن موسى الخوارزمي) was a Persian mathematician and astronomer who was believed to have been born around 800 CE and died in 850 CE during the Islamic Empire, in the Middle Ages. Al-Khwarizmi was known for the book he wrote about algebra. He also wrote a book about Hindu Arabic numbers and how to use them His work was impacting in the understanding and knowledge of math in the Middle Ages as mathematicians in Europe read his book. They began to use these Arabic numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,13...) and used them instead of the Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, ...). The Arabic number system makes it easier to do mathematics with, as Roman numbers have no place values. This means that they can only deal with whole numbers and do simple equations. Roman numerals also have no number zero.

He wrote a book on Algebra named "Al-Jabr Wal' Muqibla" in which he introduced his own number system and also introduced Arabic numerals. His books were translated into Greek and Latin. They named his books "So said Algorizmi". The word Algorithm is derived from the word Algorizmi. The word algebra comes from the word al-jabr that is at the beginning of the title of the book. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi worked at the House of Wisdom, where people worked on translating scientific works.

A page from al-Khwārizmī's Algebra