By Samuel Barnard

Full name: Mu ḥ ammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī Date of birth (not exact): 780AD-850AD Nationality: Persian Worked in: The House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

 Al-Khwarizmi is famous for his work in maths, astrology, trigonometry and geography. 1. His work in algebra was thought to be done all by him but now some think his work was mostly based on Greek/Indian sources. He helped spread algebra over the entire Islamic civilisation (North Africa, Syria, Iraq, Jerusalem, Egypt, Persia, Spain, Asia Minor and Russia.) 2. Al-Khwarizmi wrote several books about astrology, one called Zīj al-Sindhind. It was packed with charts and tables all about the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars.

3. His third major work area of work was about geography. One of his books is called "Book on the appearance of the Earth" or "The image of the Earth" (translated as Geography), which was finished in 833AD consisting of a list of 2402 coordinates of cities and other geographical features.

He wrote in Arabic. A sample of his work

 Al-Khwarizmi worked in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. The House of Wisdom stored thousands of books in its great libraries. He spoke to many other scholars about his theories and this helped develop his ideas. Baghdad was very famous for housing impo- rtant scholars.

Kitab= book Al-Jabr= algebra A page from Al- Khwarizmi's A page from Al- Khwarizmi's Kitab al-Jabr

 1. He was the official court astrologer in Baghdad.  2. He supervised the work of 70 geographers to create a map of the “known world”.  3. He also wrote a political history containing horoscopes of prominent persons.

 Al Khwarizmi was a very smart scholar in the House of Wisdom who helped spread algebra across the world. He also contributed to the knowledge of the world by making maps of the earth.