c. 820 CEReputable sourceWell documented
Al-Khwarizmi and Algebra
On the timeline · around c. 820 CE · Zero, Algebra & Numerals
What happened
In the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, during the Islamic Golden Age, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi wrote a foundational treatise on solving equations. Its title gave us the word 'algebra,' and his own Latinized name gave us the word 'algorithm.' Scholars of the Islamic world preserved and extended Greek and Indian mathematics.
Why it matters
Al-Khwarizmi effectively founded algebra as an independent discipline, and the mathematics of the medieval Islamic world was the crucial bridge that carried ancient learning — and the Hindu numerals — toward Europe.