The Alexandrian Greek

mathematician Diophantus
(3rd century AD), sometimes
called "the father of algebra",
wrote a series of books, called
Arithmetica, dealing with
solving algebraic equations.
Another Hellenistic mathematician who contributed to
the progress of algebra was

Elbasan Providence Center

May 2016

MUSLIMS DID NOT

INVENT ALGEBRA
There is a widespread misconception that muslims
"invented algebra". Maybe this fallacy is due to the fact
that "algebra" is a word of Arabic origin, but historical
questions are not solved by etymological answers.
Yes, the English word "algebra" derives from the Arabic.
So does "sugar" (from the Arabic "sukkar") but that doesn't
mean that Muslims invented sugar.
The word "algebra" stems from the Arabic word "al-jabr",
from the name of the treatise Book on Addition and Subtraction after the Method of the Indians written by the 9th
-century Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa alKhwarizmi, who translated, formalized and commented on
ancient Indian and Greek works. It is even doubtful
whether al-Khwarizmi was really a Muslim. In all likelihood he was a Zoroastrian who was forced to convert (or
die) by Muslim rulers because Persia had been conquered
by the Islamic armies, and that was what Muslims did
(and still do wherever they can). That could easily explain
the "pious preface to al-Khwarizmi's Algebra".
There is archaeological evidence that the roots of algebra
date back to the ancient Babylonians, and were then developed in Egypt and Greece. The Chinese and especially the
Indians also advanced algebra and wrote important works
on the subject.

Hero of Alexandria, as did

the Indian Brahmagupta in
his book Brahmasphutasiddhanta. With the Italian Leonardo Pisano (known as Leonardo Fibonacci, as he was
the son of Bonacci) in the
13th century, another Italian
mathematician, Girolamo
Cardano, author in 1545 of
the 40-chapter masterpiece
Ars magna ("The great art"),
and the late-16th-century
French mathematician
Franois Vite, we move from
the prehistory of algebra to
the beginning of the classical
discipline of algebra.

Conclusion
In conclusion, there have
been various attempts at
historical revisionism
concerning Islamic contributions to the world.
These attempts are more
political propaganda than
academic scholarship. After all, taqiyya, lying to
the infidels to advance
Allah's cause, is permitted, and even prescribed,
to Muslims. Jihad does
not consist only of violent
aggression or terror attacks: it can be gradual,
by stealth, through indoctrination and false reassurance.

Elbasan Providence Center

Even Bertrand Russell, who in no way is a critic of the Islamic world, writes in the Second Volume of The History of
Western Philosophy [pdf]: "Mohammedan civilization in its
great days was admirable in the arts and in many technical
ways, but it showed no capacity for independent speculation
in theoretical matters. Its importance, which must not be
underrated, is as a transmitter. Between ancient and modern European civilization, the dark ages intervened. The Mohammedans and the Byzantines, while lacking the intellectual energy required for innovation, preserved the apparatus
of civilization - education, books, and learned leisure. Both
stimulated the West when it emerged from barbarism - the
Mohammedans chiefly in the thirteenth century, the Byzantines chiefly in the fifteenth. In each case the stimulus produced new thought better than any produced by the transmitters - in the one case scholasticism, in the other the Renaissance (which however had other causes also).