The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c5.13

c5.13

⁵ His full name was ʿAbū ʿAbdallāh Moḥammed ibn Mūsā al-Khowārazmī. He was born in Khowārezm, "the lowlands," the country about the present Khiva and bordering on the Oxus, and lived at Bagdad under the caliph al-Māmūn. He died probably between 220 and 230 of the Mohammedan era, that is, between 835 and 845 A.D., although some put the date as early as 812. The best account of this great scholar may be found in an article by C. Nallino, "Al-Huwārizmī," in the *Atti della R. Accad. dei Lincei*, Rome, 1896. See also *Verhandlungen des 5. Congresses der Orientalisten*, Berlin, 1882, Vol. II, p. 19; W. Spitta-Bey in the *Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenländ. Gesellschaft*, Vol. XXXIII, p. 224; Steinschneider in the *Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenländ. Gesellschaft*, Vol. L, p. 214; Treutlein in the *Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik*, Vol. I, p. 5; Suter, "Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke," *Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik*, Vol. X, Leipzig, 1900, p. 10, and "Nachträge," in Vol. XIV, p. 158; Cantor, *Geschichte der Mathematik*, Vol. I, 3d ed., pp. 712–733 etc.; F. Woepcke in *Propagation*, p. 489. So recently has he become known that Heilbronner, writing in 1742, merely mentions him as "Ben-Musa, inter Arabes celebris Geometra, scripsit de figuris planis & sphericis." [*Historia matheseos universæ*, Leipzig, 1742, p. 438.] In this work most of the Arabic names will be transliterated substantially as laid down by Suter in his work *Die Mathematiker* etc., except where this violates English pronunciation. The scheme of pronunciation of oriental names is set forth in the preface.