Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khawarizmi
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khawarizmi
780-850
Astronomer-Mathematician
The House of Wisdom. Al-Khawarizmi was born in Kath Town, Khiva, on the Aral Sea and was appointed official astronomer to Caliph al Ma’mun, who in 830 established the Bayt al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad for the study and translation of scientific and philosophical treatises. He invented the terms algebra and algorithm, and his works are responsible for introducing those concepts, as well as Arabic numerals (which the Arabs got from the Hindus), to European mathematicians.
Geography. Al-Khawarizmi revised and improved Ptolemy’s geographic works and produced a map of the world that included a precise location for the Western Sudan. His Kitab surat al-ard (Book of the Image of the World) includes latitudes and longitudes for localities in the known world and is credited with laying the foundation for all subsequent Arabic geography.
Sources
Nafis Ahmad, Muslim Contribution to Geography (Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1972).
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study (London: World of Islam Festival Publishing, 1976).
Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam (London: Islamic Texts Society, 1987).
Ahmad Nazmi, “Some Aspects of the Image of the World in Muslim Tradition, Legends, and Geographical Literature,” Studia Arabistyczne i Islamistyczne, 6 (1998): 87-102.