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Algebra takes its name from al-jabr, a word in the title of a textbook written in Baghdad around 820 by the Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. His own name, turned into Latin as Algoritmi, gave us the word algorithm.

Etymology

LanguageScience

The story behind the card

Al-Khwarizmi worked in Baghdad under the caliph al-Ma'mun, at the centre of learning known as the House of Wisdom. His book, The Concise Book of Calculation by Restoration and Balancing, showed step by step how to solve equations. Al-jabr, “restoration”, meant moving a subtracted quantity to the other side of an equation; al-muqabala, “balancing”, meant cancelling equal terms on both sides. Robert of Chester translated the book into Latin in 1145, and it remained a main mathematics textbook in European universities until the 16th century. Another of his works explained the Hindu-Arabic numerals we use today. Its 12th-century Latin translation opened with the words “Dixit Algorizmi”, “so said al-Khwarizmi”, and from his Latinised name, algorism, later algorithm, came to mean a step-by-step method of calculation. His name itself means “the man from Khwarazm”, a region in today's Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Türkçe oku
Cebir sözcüğü, Harezmli matematikçi Muhammed bin Musa el-Hârizmî'nin 820 dolaylarında Bağdat'ta yazdığı ders kitabının adındaki el-cebr kelimesinden gelir. Hârizmî'nin Latinceye Algoritmi diye geçen adı da algoritma sözcüğünü doğurdu.

Hârizmî, Halife Me'mûn döneminde Bağdat'ta, Beytülhikme (Bilgelik Evi) adıyla bilinen bilim merkezinde çalıştı. Kitabı “Tamamlama ve Denkleştirme Yoluyla Hesap Üzerine Özet Kitap” adını taşıyordu ve denklemlerin adım adım nasıl çözüleceğini gösteriyordu. Adındaki el-cebr, yani “tamamlama”, denklemin bir yanında çıkarılan terimi öbür yana geçirmek; el-mukabele, yani “denkleştirme”, iki yandaki eşit terimleri sadeleştirmek demekti. Kitabı 1145'te Robert of Chester Latinceye çevirdi ve eser 16. yüzyıla kadar Avrupa üniversitelerinde başlıca matematik ders kitaplarından biri olarak okundu. Bugün kullandığımız Hint-Arap rakamlarını anlatan bir başka eserinin 12. yüzyıldaki Latince çevirisi “Dixit Algorizmi”, yani “Hârizmî dedi ki” sözleriyle başlıyordu. Adının bu Latince biçiminden önce algorism, sonra algoritma sözcüğü türedi ve adım adım işleyen hesap yöntemi anlamını kazandı. Türkçede cebir sözcüğünün bir de “zorlama” anlamı vardır; ikisi de Arapçadaki aynı cebr sözcüğünden gelir. Hârizmî adı “Harezmli” demektir; Harezm, bugünkü Özbekistan ve Türkmenistan topraklarında kalan bir bölgedir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Algebra
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