Khwārizmī: Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al‐Khwārizmī
Sonja Brentjes
Born circa 780
Died circa 850
Khwārizmī
was a well‐known astronomer and mathematician who spent most, if not
all, of his scholarly life in Baghdad, in close connection with the ʿAbbāsid
court, particularly during the caliphate of Maʾmūn
(reigned: 813–833). There is some confusion about his origins. The 10th‐century
bibliographer Ibn al‐Nadīm claimed that Muḥammad ibn Mūsā was
from Khwārizm in Central Asia, whereas the historian Ṭabarī reported that Khwārizmī
was also known as al‐Quṭrabbulī, a name associating the scholar with a town
not far from Baghdad rather than with the Central Asian region of Khwārizm
(Toomer, p. 358). Ṭabarī added that he was also
called al‐Majūsī, a designation that indicates that Khwārizmī
was a Zoroastrian rather than a Muslim. Ibn al‐Nadīm also stated
that he was attached to the Bayt al‐ḥikma, the caliphal library.
What this means exactly is unclear since there is considerable modern controversy
about this institution and whether it should be regarded simply as a library
or as a translation bureau and scientific research institution.
Ibn
al‐Nadīm lists four astronomical works: the Zīj al‐Sindhind
(an astronomical handbook according to the Sindhind), a treatise
on the sundial, and two works on the astrolabe. Of these, the first is no
longer extant in Arabic but is available in Latin translation; the second
seems to be extant as are fragments of a work on the astrolabe. Rosenfeld
and Ihsanoğlu list 20 astronomical works in all. Among Khwārizmī's
nonastronomical works at least two are mathematical: a book on Indian arithmetic
and one devoted to algebra. (A book on “addition and subtraction” is also
attributed to him.) He also has a Book on Geography, which is extant,
and a Book on History, which is not but was quoted by later authors.
The Algebra and the Zīj were dedicated to Caliph Maʾmūn.
The treatise on Indian arithmetic in its extant Latin translation mentions
the Algebra and hence was produced later. Khwārizmī also
wrote a description of the Jewish calendar, which was written not before
823/824 because one of its examples is carried out for that year. The other
texts offer no clue for dating them.
Khwārizmī's
Zīj al‐Sindhind confirmed the place of pre‐Islamic
Indian astronomical models, functions, and parameters in the scholarly community
of Baghdad, which had been multicultural since the second half of the 8th
century. Before him, several “Zījāt al‐Sindhind” are said
to have been compiled based on Arabic translations of Indian astronomical
handbooks (Pingree 1970, p. 105). Indeed, the astronomer Ibn
al‐Ādamī described Khwārizmī's Zīj
as an abridgment, prepared for Maʾmūn, of Fazārī's
(second half of the 8th century) handbook al‐Sindhind (Pingree
1970, p. 106). Khwārizmī's tables were known to astronomers not
only in Baghdad, but also in Central Asia in the east and in Andalusia on
the Iberian Peninsula in the west. A number of authors who compiled their
own handbooks relied on it. Two examples are the already‐mentioned
Ibn al‐Ādamī in Baghdad, in his nonextant astronomical handbook
Naẓm al‐ʿiqd, and Ibn
Muʿādh in Andalusia, whose handbook
is extant in its Latin translation Tabulae Jahen. Others commented
on Khwārizmī's tables, often criticizing the methods used, such
as Aḥmad ibn Kathīr al‐Farghānī
(9th century) in Baghdad, Ibn al‐Muthannā (10th century?) in
Andalusia, ʿAbdallāh ibn Masrūr al‐Ḥāsib
al‐Naṣrānī
in Baghdad (9/10th centuries), and Abū
Rayḥān al‐Bīrūnī
in Ghazna. Bīrūnī devoted three treatises to Khwārizmī's
Zīj. In one of them he defended Khwārizmī against
attacks of Aḥmad ibn al‐Ḥusayn al‐Ahwāzī (10th century) (Muḥammad ibn Mūsā 1983,
p. 21). It is believed that as late as the 19th century, tables connected
to Khwārizmī's Zīj were copied in Egypt (Goldstein
and Pingree 1978; Pingree 1983).
No copy of Khwārizmī's Zīj has survived, but
Hebrew and Latin versions of various later texts connected with Khwārizmī's
tables are extant. Ibn al‐Muthannā in Andalusia set out to compose
a commentary in order to rectify the obscurities of a critique of Khwārizmī's
tables written by Farghānī. Both commentaries are lost. But Hebrew
and Latin versions of Ibn al‐Muthannā's commentary are extant
(Goldstein 1967, pp. 5–6; Pedersen, p. 32). The Latin translation of Ibn
al‐Muthanna's commentary was made by Hugo of Santalla (12th century)
(Millás Vendrell, 1963). One Hebrew translation was produced by Abraham
ibn Ezra (Goldstein 1967, p. 3). In the same century as Ibn al‐Muthannā
and also in Andalusia, Maslama ibn Aḥmad al‐Majrīṭī edited Khwārizmī's
tables. Majrīṭī's student Ibn
al-Ṣaffār is believed to have continued the editorial work
of his teacher (Toomer, p. 358). This edition was translated in the 12th
century into Latin presumably by Adelard
of Bath. Other Latin manuscripts contain texts that seem to combine
extracts from Ibn al‐Muthannā's commentary, Majrīṭī's edition, and one or more Arabic compilations of
material, translated and revised into Latin, from the tables of Khwārizmī,
Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr, Muḥammad
ibn Jābir al‐Battānī, Ibn al‐Muthannā,
and Majrīṭī (Pedersen, pp. 31–46).
The Toledan Tables, compiled around 1060 in Muslim Spain, contain
several tables from Khwārizmī's Zīj, some of which
are not found in Majrīṭī's
revision. They are lost in Arabic, but extant in several Latin versions
(Dalen, p. 200).
The
extant texts and tables follow in their presentation of the material; in
their methods, rules, and models; and in several of their parameter values
astronomical knowledge and practice as taught in several treatises written
by Hindu scholars between the 5th and 7th centuries. They also use elements
from Sasanian astronomical tables, incorporate borrowings from Greek astronomical
writings (in particular Ptolemy's
Almagest and Handy Tables), and include values determined
by observations carried out during Ma'mūn's reign. A survey of the
character of the tables in the Latin translation of Majrīṭī's revision of Khwārizmī's
Zīj has recently been given by Dalen (pp. 200–211). Khwārizmī's
original Zīj has been described as a similar mixture of elements
by Ibn al‐Ādamī, who, according to Ibn al‐Qifṭī (1173–1248), had reported that Khwārizmī
had relied in his work on the mean motions of the Indian tradition, but
differed from it in the equations and the declination. Ibn al‐Ādamī
also asserted that Khwārizmī followed Sasanian sources with regard
to the equations and Ptolemy when he dealt with the declination of the Sun
(Pingree 1970, p. 106). According to McCarthy and Byrne, Khwārizmī's
original handbook juxtaposed tables, which addressed the same kind of tasks,
but came from different cultural origins. Examples illustrating the diverse
components in the extant texts and tables and their modifications are the
replacement of the Yazdagird calendar by the Hijra era, the addition of
calendars alien to the traditions in India such as the ancient Egyptian,
Seleucid, Roman, and Christian eras, the use of theorems (such as the Menelaus
theorem) that were unknown to Hindu astronomers, the use of the value for
the obliquity of the ecliptic as found in Ptolemy's Handy Tables,
the use of the Ptolemaic value of 66 2/3 miles for
a terrestrial degree, and the replacement of the latitude of Baghdad by
the latitude of Cordova (Neugebauer, p. 19; Kennedy and Janjanian, pp. 73,
77; Goldstein 1967, pp. 7–8; Dalen, 1996, pp. 196, 240).
Khwārizmī's
treatise on the Jewish calendar gives rules for determining the mean longitude
of the Sun and the Moon based on this calendar and for determining on what
day of the Muslim week the first day of the New Year shall fall. It also
discusses the 19‐year intercalation cycle and the temporal distance
between the beginning of the Jewish era, i. e., the creation of Adam
and the beginning of the Seleucid era (Kennedy, 1964, pp. 55–59; Toomer,
p. 360). The treatise on how to work with an astrolabe is only fragmentarily
preserved, and opinions vary as to whether these fragments in their present‐form
represent the genuine version of what Khwārizmī actually wrote.
The treatise on how to construct an astrolabe seems to be lost. Khwārizmī's
book on geography Kitāb Ṣūrat al‐arḍ combines substantial
parts of Ptolemy's Geography with many non‐Ptolemaic coordinates
and place names. His two writings on arithmetic, one in the tradition of
oral reckoning and the other according to the Indian tradition of written
reckoning using the decimal place‐value system, are lost in Arabic.
The latter is extant in various Latin manuscripts. Khwārizmī's
book on algebra is the first known in Arabic. It treats quadratic equations,
the measurement of areas and volumes, commercial problems by means of four
proportional quantities, and several types of Muslim inheritance mathematics.
This text too was translated into Latin by at least two translators. Its
influence upon elementary algebra in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Latin,
and European vernacular languages was substantial.
Finally,
it is worth mentioning that Khwarizmi may have participated in a number
of scientific expeditions, one to measure the size of the Earth, the other
to explore the regions north of the Caspian Sea (Matvievskaya and Rozenfeld,
1983, Vol. 2: p.41). The first, though, has been recently questioned (King,
2000).
Selected References
Al‐Khwārizmī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā
(1983). Astronomicheskiye traktaty. Vstupitel'naja stat'ja, perevod
i kommentarii A. Ahmedova. Tashkent: Izdatel'stvo “FAN” Uzbekskoj SSR.
——— (1997). Texts
and Studies II. Collected and reprinted by Fuat Sezgin, in collaboration with
Mazen Amawi, Carl Ehrig‐Eggert, and Eckhard Neubauer. Islamic Mathematics
and Astronomy, Vol. 4. Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic‐Islamic
Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University.
Dalen,
Benno van (1996). “Al‐Khwārizmī's Astronomical Tables Revisited:
Analysis of the Equation of Time.” In From Baghdad to Barcelona: Studies
in the Islamic Exact Sciences in Honour of Prof. Juan Vernet, edited by
Josep Casulleras and Julio Samsó. Vol. 1, pp. 195–252. Barcelona: Instituto “Millás Vallicrosa”
de Historia de la Ciencia Árabe.
Goldstein, Bernard
R. (1967). Ibn al‐Muthannā's Commentary on the Astronomical
Tables of al‐Khwārizmī. Two Hebrew versions, edited and
translated, with an astronomical commentary by Bernard R. Goldstein. New Haven:
Yale University Press.
Goldstein, Bernard R. and David Pingree. (1978). “The Astronomical
Tables of al‐Khwārizmī in a Nineteenth Century Egyptian Text.”
Journal of the American Oriental Society 98: 96–99.
Gutas,
Dimitri (1998). Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco‐Arabic
Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ʿAbbāsid
Society (2nd–4th/8th–10th centuries). London: Routledge.
Hogendijk, Jan P. (1991). “Al‐Khwārizmī's Table
of the ‘Sine of Hours' and the Underlying Sine Table.” Historia scientiarum
42: 1–12.
Ibn al‐Nadīm (1970). The Fihrist of al‐Nadīm:
A Tenth‐Century Survey of Muslim Culture, edited and translated
by Bayard Dodge. 2 Vols. New York: Columbia University Press.
Kennedy, E. S. (1964).
“Al‐Khwārizmī on the Jewish Calendar.” Scripta mathematica
27: 55–59. (Reprinted in Kennedy, Studies, pp. 661–665.)
Kennedy, E. S, et
al. (1983). Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences, edited by David
A. King and Mary Helen Kennedy. Beirut: American University of Beirut.
Kennedy, E. S. and Mardiros Janjanian (1965). “The Crescent
Visibility Table in Al‐Khwārizmī's Zīj.” Centaurus
11: 73–78. (Reprinted in Kennedy, Studies, pp. 151–156).
Kennedy, E. S. and Walid Ukashah (1969). “Al‐Khwārizmī's
Planetary Latitude Tables.” Centaurus 14: 86–96. (Reprinted in Kennedy,
Studies, pp. 125–135.)
King, David A. (1983).
“Al‐Khwārizmī and New Trends in Mathematical Astronomy in
the Ninth Century.” Occasional Papers on the Near East 2. New York:
New York University, Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies.
——— (1987). “Some
Early Islamic Tables for Determining Lunar Crescent Visibility.” In From
Deferent to Equant: A Volume of Studies in the History of Science in the Ancient
and Medieval Near East in Honor of E. S. Kennedy, edited by David A. King
and George Saliba, pp. 185–225. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,
Vol. 500. New York: New York Academy of Sciences. (Reprinted in King, Astronomy
in the Service of Islam, II. Aldershot: Variorum, 1993.)
——— (2000). “Too Many
Cooks … A New Account of the Earliest Muslim Geodetic Measurements.” Suhayl
1: 207–241.
Kunitzsch, Paul (1987). “Al‐Khwārizmī as a Source
for the Sententie astrolabii.” In From Deferent to Equant: A Volume
of Studies in the History of Science in the Ancient and Medieval Near East
in Honor of E. S. Kennedy, edited by David A. King and George Saliba,
pp. 227–236. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 500. New York:
New York Academy of Sciences. (Reprinted in Kunitzsch, The Arabs and the
Stars, IX. Northampton: Variorum Reprints, 1989.)
Matvievskaya, G. P. and B. A. Rozenfeld (1983). Matematiki
i astronomi musulmanskogo srednevekovya i ikh trudi (VIII–XVII vv.) (Mathematicians
and astronomers of the Muslim middle ages and their works [VIII–XVII centuries]).
3 Vols. Moscow: Nauka.
McCarthy,
Daniel P. and John G. Byrne (2003). “Al‐Khwārizmī's
Sine Tables and a Western Table with the Hindu Norm of R = 150.” Archive
for History of Exact Sciences 57: 243–266.
Millás
Vallicrosa, José María (1963). “La autenticidad del comentario a las Tablas
astronómicas de al‐Jwārizmī por Aḥmad
ibn al‐Muṯannā.”
Isis 54:
114–119.
Millás
Vendrell, Eduardo (1963). El comentario de Ibn al‐Mutannà a las Tablas
astronómicas de al‐ Jwārizmī. Madrid.
Neugebauer, Otto (1962). The Astronomical Tables of al‐Khwārizmī.
Translation with commentaries of the Latin version edited by H. Suter, supplemented
by Corpus Christi College MS 283. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard.
Pedersen, Fritz S.
(1992). “Alkhwarizmi's Astronomical Rules: Yet Another Latin Version?” Cahiers
de l'Institut du moyen âge grec et latin 62: 31–75.
Pingree, David (1968). “The Fragments of the Works of Yaʿqūb
ibn Ṭāriq.”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 27: 97–125.
——— (1970). “The Fragments
of the Works of al‐Fazārī.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies
29: 103–123.
———
(1983). “Al‐Khwārizmī in Samaria.” Archives internationales
d'histoire des sciences 33: 15–21.
Rosenfeld, B. A. and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu (2003). Mathematicians,
Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th–19th
c.). Istanbul: IRCICA, pp. 21–26.
Rosenfeld, Boris A. and N. D. Sergeeva (1977). “Ob astronomicheskikh
traktatakh al‐Khorezmi.” Istoriko‐Astronomicheskie Issledovaniya
13: 201–218.
Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums.
Vol. 5, Mathematik (1974): 228–241; Vol. 6, Astronomie
(1978): 140–143; Vol. 7, Astrologie–Meteorologie und Verwandtes
(1979): 128–129. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Suter, Heinrich (1914). Die astronomischen Tafeln des Muḥammed
ibn Mūsā al‐Khwārizmī in der Bearbeitung des Maslama
ibn Aḥmed al‐Madjrītī und der lateinischen Übersetzung
des Adelhard von Bath. Copenhagen: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.
(Reprinted in Suter, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Mathematik und Astronomie
im Islam. Vol. 1, pp. 473–751. Frankfurt am Main, 1986.)
Toomer, Gerald J. (1973). “Al‐Khwārizmī.” In
Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie.
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