The central object of computer science, the algorithm, is named after a person. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a mathematician who worked in Baghdad around the year 820, and both the word “algorithm” and the word “algebra” trace back to him.
The idea
An algorithm is a finite, systematic, step-by-step procedure that solves every instance of a class of problems, rather than one case at a time. Al-Khwarizmi wrote such procedures down, and his name became the word for them.
The House of Wisdom
Al-Khwarizmi, of Persian stock, worked during the Islamic Golden Age at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad around 820, a center of translation and scholarship. His mathematics drew together Greek, Indian, and earlier traditions and pushed them forward.
Two words from one man
His name, Latinized as Algoritmi, became the English words algorism and algorithm. The short title of his treatise, al-jabr, became the word algebra. Few individuals are the etymological root of two pillars of a field.
Step by step
What earns him the connection to computing is method. His systematic approach to solving linear and quadratic equations gave a general recipe: a sequence of steps that works for every problem of a given form, rather than a clever trick for one case. That generality is exactly what an algorithm is.
Forward
The formal question of what a step-by-step procedure can and cannot compute waited a thousand years, until Turing and the theory of computability gave “algorithm” a precise mathematical meaning.
Related Notes
- Turing and Computability, where the algorithm became a formal object
- Mathematical Induction, the proof technique behind correct procedures
- The Antikythera Mechanism, the other ancient root of computing
- History of Computing, the section index
Sources
- “Al-Khwarizmi,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Khwarizmi . Supports al-Khwarizmi as a mathematician of Persian stock active around 820 at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age, his Latinized name Algoritmi as the origin of “algorithm,” the term “algebra” from his treatise al-jabr, and his systematic step-by-step methods for solving linear and quadratic equations.