The aim of this research paper is to explore the progress and development of Algebra during the golden age of the Islamic Era, encompassing the 9th to 15th centuries. I will define the term and then begin with a brief discussion of the early usage of algebra in recorded history, moving quickly into the Islamic Era, where I will discuss the first Islamic algebraists and their contribution to the progress of algebra.I will give an account of the methodology, and then give a review of the literature.
From this there will be a report of the findings, resulting in a discussion of said findings.The paper will culminate in a conclusion drawn from the research. Research will show that the Islamic Era benefited the world by virtue of the advances it made in the mathematics of algebra and its subsequent spread of that science.Algebra is that “branch of mathematics that deals with general statements of relations, utilizing letters and other symbols to represent specific sets of numbers, values, vectors, and so forth, in the description of such relations” (Dictionary.com, 1).
The word is from the Arabic phrase, al jebr, meaning reunion of broken parts, “used [in the 9th century] by Baghdad mathematician Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi … [in] the title of his famous treatise on equations” (Ibid.). While the word is Arabic, neither Islam nor the Arabic nations invented this form of math.It is, at its most simplistic, a basic form of reasoning.
By the time early man learned to count, it is likely that he was able to figure out that if he had five apples and a monkey stole one, he would have only four left. From such rudimentary beginnings, math, as a whole, including algebra, became a part of the human psyche. No one race or culture can claim credit for its invention.Yet Islam, during its golden age, made quantum leaps in understanding and formulating algebraic equations and function. This paper will begin with the contributions made by Islamic mathematicians during that time period.Methodology used in this research is primarily the processing of qualitative data, taken from both primary and secondary sources.
The sources of this data will be examined closely utilizing critical reasoning. These sources come, in part, from searching the data quoted in works such as PBS.org’s Islam: Empire of Faith.Bashmakova and Smirnova’s The Beginnings and Evolution of Algebra takes an intense look at algebra during the early days of the founding of Islam, tracing its progression during the era under discussion. Published by The Mathematical Association of America in 2000, it is respected treatment of the subject matter.PBS television’s KERA of Dallas, Texas has a website page dedicated to a series it aired, titled Islam: Empire of Faith, with one of its segments being Algebra and Trigonometry.
It contains data dealing with Islamic era algebra in general, and with Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in particular, calling him the “greatest mathematician” (PBS.org 1).This site contains a link to the Louis Charles Karpinsky English translation of Robert of Chester’s 12th century Latin translation of al-Khwarizmi’s seminal work, which became an valuable source in itself.Research shows that algebra, in the modern sense of the word, complete with formulas for determining unknown quantities, likely originated in Egypt and Babylonia, and in a time that predates Islam. In the 7th century, with the coming of Islam and its conquest of the territories it was able to subjugate, the story of algebra began to come to center stage.
Soon an empire came about that spanned an area of the globe from India to Spain. By the 8th century the caliph Haroun al-Rashid established his House of Wisdom, modeled on the library of Alexandria. Scholars and translators flocked to the new seat of learning and Arabic became the official language of the sciences.Such western works as Euclid’s Elements and Ptolemy’s Almagest were among the translated works (Bashmakova and Smirnova, 49). The first three books of Arithmetica were translated into Arabic, and Diophantus’ work had a decisive effect on Arab mathematicians of the 10th and 11th centuries (Ibid. 52).
Abu Kamil, writing as al- Hasib al Misri (ca. 850-ca. 930), published treatises on algebra during this period. By the time of Omar Khayam (1048-1131), poet, scientist and author of the influential Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra, Islamic mathematicians “realized that the solution of (determinate and indeterminate) equations is a distinct discipline” (Bashmakova and Smirnova, 55).Even the mathematicians who worked in astronomical investigations were primarily interested in “numerical methods of the solution of equations … The
