Al-Khwarizmi: The Father of Algebra

25:02

20 Oct 2015

History of Science, Mathematics

Jim al-Khalili

Jim al-Khalili in this episode discusses “how the mathematical underpinnings of science apply today and trace their roots back” to the early Abbasid era, often called “the Golden Age”.  To do this, al-Khalili discusses two important medieval scholars, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (ca. 780-850 CE) and Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (ca. 801-873 CE).

His brings the discussion into the modern world by examining how flight (and super-fast land vehicles) use mathematics when calculating lift and drag.  He is joined for these sections of the episode by Andy Green, who has a degree in mathematics from Oxford and is the current land speed record holder.  They also discuss Bloodhound, the vehicle with which Green plans to break the current land-speed record, using solutions provided by Omar Khayyam.

Al-Khalili also points out how al-Khwārizmī’s book, The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, provides solutions to a multitude of practical, everyday problems of medieval Middle Eastern life.  He includes several common words in English which are derived from Arabic, such as algebra (al-jabr) and algorithm.  He is joined for this section of the discussion by Ali Sultan al-Hajri, a businessman from Qatar, and his prize camels.

As part of his discussion of this period of scholarship, Al-Khalili discusses the Bayt al-ḥikma or House of Wisdom with two scholars, Prof. Ramazan Şeşen and Dr. Peter Starr.  For this segment of the presentation, al-Khalili is in Istanbul.  He discusses al-Khwārizmī’s advocating of a then-new number system, the Arabic-Hindu number system, which corresponds to the one in use today, while sitting in a lovely outdoor café in Doha.  He demonstrates how much easier it made calculations, and discusses its transfer to Europe through the Italian mathematician Fibonacci.

The episode closes with the relatively recent discovery that al-Kindī discussed frequency analysis, a form of encryption.  This ties together the medieval and the modern once again.

This is the third episode is this six-part series, first broadcast in the fall of 2015.  Each episode focuses on topics that have both historical and contemporary components.  Some of the contemporary segments were filmed in Doha, Qatar, home for the al-Jazeera network.

Evaluation:

Islam:  There is relatively little here on Islam, but it is within the bounds of what Muslims have historically understood as acceptable.

Science:  The science presented is consistent with a consensus of contemporary scientists.

History:  The history presented is consistent with a consensus of contemporary historians.