The Life of Al-Khwarizmi - 'The Grandfather' of Algorithms

Algorithms have become an indispensable part of the current technological age. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn user preferences and prioritize the content shown to each individual. Google Maps and artificial intelligence would be meaningless without algorithms.

But aren't algorithms born in the modern era? More than 1,000 years before the internet and smartphones, the Persian sage Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi invented the concept of algorithms. In fact, the word algorithm itself comes from the Latin version of his name.

Al-Khwarizmi's monument in Uzbekistan. (Photo: Shutterstock).

Al-Khwarizmi lived from 780 to 850 AD. He is considered the 'father of algebra' and to some, Al-Khwarizmi is also the 'father of computer science' . However, very little information has been preserved about his life. Many of Al-Khwarizmi's original Arabic studies have been lost over time. It is believed that Al-Khwarizmi was born in the Khwarazm region of the Southern Aral Sea in present-day Uzbekistan.

Al-Khwarizmi made important contributions to mathematics, geography, astronomy, and trigonometry . He also found calculations to track the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets. He also wrote about trigonometric functions.

Al-Khwarizmi was a scholar at the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah) in Baghdad. This is the first institute of advanced scientific research in the history of the Islamic world.

At Bayt al-Hikmah, scholars translate knowledge from around the world into Arabic, then synthesize it to make progress in many different fields, including mathematics.

One of the major projects that Muslim mathematicians undertook at Bayt al-Hikmah was the development of algebra. Around 830 AD, Caliph al-Ma'mun (813–833) encouraged Al-Khwarizmi to write a treatise on algebra. Later, it became his most important product.

At that time, 'algebra' had existed for hundreds of years, but Al-Khwarizmi was the first to write a clear book about it. His research aimed to create a practical teaching tool. The Latin translation of the book was the basis for algebra textbooks in European universities until the 16th century.

In the first part, he introduces algebraic concepts and rules as well as methods for calculating the volume and area of ​​shapes. In the second part, he introduces practical problems and solutions, such as inheritance cases, land division, and commercial calculations. Al-Khwarizmi did not use modern mathematical notation, instead he wrote in simple prose and used geometric diagrams. For example, the content: 'The root of four is twenty, one root is five and the square formed from it is twenty-five'. In modern notation, we would write it as follows: 4x = 20, x = 5, x2 = 25.

A stamp about the wise man Al-Khwarizmi issued by the Soviet Union in 1983, commemorating the 1,200th anniversary of his birth. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

Al-Khwarizmi's mathematical works introduced Hindu-Arab numerals to Western mathematicians. They are the ten symbols we all use today: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. Hindu-Arab numerals are important to the history of computing because they use the number 0 and the decimal system. This is the number system that underlies modern computing technology.

Al-Khwarizmi's art of calculating mathematical problems laid the foundation for the concept of algorithms . He gave the first detailed explanations of how to use decimal notation to perform the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). This is a more effective calculation method than using an abacus. To solve a mathematical equation, Al-Khwarizmi systematically moved through a series of steps to find the answer. This is the basic concept for the algorithm.

Today, the word "algorithm" has a definition: 'A set of instructions or mathematical rules that will help calculate the answer to a mathematical problem'.

Mr. Al-Khwarizmi played an important role in the development of mathematics and computer science as we know it today. Any of today's digital technologies, from social networks to online banking accounts, would not be possible without the pioneering work of an ancient Persian scholar.