Al-Khwarizmi

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 6.1.2: Middle-Eastern Arabic Writing and Culture: Classical and Post-Classical, 700-1300.
Vol. editors: Ziad Elmarsafy (King's College London), Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Rita Sakr (Maynooth University), Anastasia Valassopoulos (University of Manchester)

Dates

Born c. 780
Died c. 850
Activity c. 810-c. 850

Places

Born in Uzbekistan
Active in Asia - Southwest

Activities

Primary

Astronomer
Geographer
Mathematician

Resources

He is considered to be the founder of algebra. Latin translations of his Arithmetic, on the Indian numerals, introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world in the 12th century.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

32 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Al-Khwarizmi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12045, accessed 10 June 2026.]