Posted on 08/11/2013 4:38:30 PM PDT by Enza Ferreri
Continuing on the theme of what Muslims did - or more likely did not do - for the world, there is a widespread misconception that they "invented algebra". Maybe this fallacy is due to the fact that "algebra" is a word of Arabic origin, but historical questions are not solved by etymological answers.
Yes, the English word "algebra" derives from the Arabic. So does "sugar" (from the Arabic "sukkar") but that doesn't mean that Muslims invented sugar.
The word "algebra" stems from the Arabic word "al-jabr", from the name of the treatise Book on Addition and Subtraction after the Method of the Indians written by the 9th-century Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, who translated, formalized and commented on ancient Indian and Greek works.
It is even doubtful whether al-Khwārizmī was really a Muslim. The Wikipedia entry on him says:
Regarding al-Khwārizmī's religion, Toomer writes:In all likelihood he was a Zoroastrian who was forced to convert (or die) by Muslim rulers because Persia had been conquered by the Islamic armies and that was what Muslims did (and still do wherever they can). That could easily explain the "pious preface to al-Khwārizmī's Algebra"."Another epithet given to him by al-Ṭabarī, "al-Majūsī," would seem to indicate that he was an adherent of the old Zoroastrian religion. This would still have been possible at that time for a man of Iranian origin, but the pious preface to al-Khwārizmī's Algebra shows that he was an orthodox Muslim, so al-Ṭabarī's epithet could mean no more than that his forebears, and perhaps he in his youth, had been Zoroastrians."
Wikipedia also says:
In Renaissance Europe, he [al-Khwārizmī] was considered the original inventor of algebra, although it is now known that his work is based on older Indian or Greek sources.There is archaeological evidence that the roots of algebra date back to the ancient Babylonians, then developed in Egypt and Greece. The Chinese and even more the Indians also advanced algebra and wrote important works on the subject.
The Alexandrian Greek mathematician Diophantus (3rd century AD), sometimes called "the father of algebra", wrote a series of books, called Arithmetica, dealing with solving algebraic equations. Another Hellenistic mathematician who contributed to the progress of algebra was Hero of Alexandria, as did the Indian Brahmagupta in his book Brahmasphutasiddhanta.
With the Italian Leonardo Pisano (known as Leonardo Fibonacci, as he was the son of Bonacci) in the 13th century, another Italian mathematician, Girolamo Cardano, author in 1545 of the 40-chapter masterpiece Ars magna ("The great art"), and the late-16th-century French mathematician François Viète, we move from the prehistory of algebra to the beginning of the classical discipline of algebra.
Even Bertrand Russell, who in no way is a critic of the Islamic world, writes in the Second Volume of The History of Western Philosophy:
Arabic philosophy is not important as original thought. Men like Avicenna and Averroes are essentially commentators. Speaking generally, the views of the more scientific philosophers come from Aristotle and the Neoplatonists in logic and metaphysics, from Galen in medicine, from Greek and Indian sources in mathematics and astronomy, and among mystics religious philosophy has also an admixture of old Persian beliefs. Writers in Arabic showed some originality in mathematics and in chemistry--in the latter case, as an incidental result of alchemical researches.You can see that to say that Muslims invented or pioneered algebra is a gross misrepresentation.Mohammedan civilization in its great days was admirable in the arts and in many technical ways, but it showed no capacity for independent speculation in theoretical matters. Its importance, which must not be underrated, is as a transmitter. Between ancient and modern European civilization, the dark ages intervened. The Mohammedans and the Byzantines, while lacking the intellectual energy required for innovation, preserved the apparatus of civilization--education, books, and learned leisure. Both stimulated the West when it emerged from barbarism--the Mohammedans chiefly in the thirteenth century, the Byzantines chiefly in the fifteenth. In each case the stimulus produced new thought better than any produced by the transmitters--in the one case scholasticism, in the other the Renaissance (which however had other causes also).
In conclusion, there are various attempts at historical revisionism as far as Islamic contributions to the world are concerned. These attempts are more political propaganda than academic scholarship. After all, taqiyya, lying to the infidels to advance Allah's cause, is permitted, and even prescribed, to Muslims, and jihad does not just consist in violent aggression or terror attacks: it can be gradual, by stealth, through indoctrination and false reassurance.
Back in HS, the bullies who beat kids for their lunch money were incredibly, smart at algebra and math. Must be the money they kept counting every time they beat someone up.
Besides pedophilia and killing anyone who disagrees, what have they accomplished.
The Muslims translated the Greek writings into Arabic where their philosophers made use of the Greek ideas.
Around 1100 A.D. when the Spanish were taking back their lands from the Muslims, they discovered the translated works.
The Archbishop of Toledo assembled a group of Christian (Catholic), Islamic and Jewish philosophers who all worked together to get the Greek writings translated into Latin.
Curiously, after many years of having benefited from the Greek writings the mullahs in charge decided to forgo anymore work using the Greek writings, whereas the West headed by the Catholic Church understood the benefit of studying the Greek philosophy.
This decision by the Church to not stifle the inquiry preceded and encouraged the Renaissance.
The Islamic religion became stunted when it turned its back on the Greek philosophers.
They are essentially still living in the 1100s.
Everybody completely disregards the Byzantines - the eastern half of the Roman empire that kept on truckin' for 1,000 years after the western Roman empire collapsed. That's where the muslims got their hands on the Greek philosophers and mathematicians and that's where western Europe was re-introduced to those works during the Crusades.
Um... Except the correct name for them is hindu arabic numbers. The "hindu" being there for a reason. BTW the Arabs do not use the numeric symbols we call arabic numbers.
As a student of history, I will look into your claims.
Liberals love to tell the world how important Islam is. Meanwhile Islam slays women and gays, mutilates women, and enforces a fundamentalistic views. Weird hoe Liberals support this religion, and yet condemn Christianity
...and I’ve been wrong before. The Arab architecture I’ve seen is responsible for my present “feelings” on the subject, but I will consider that I am wrong, as that’s what learning is all about.
Aldebaran
Betelgeuse
Zuben Elgenubi
I don't think the Crusaders took too many books home. Most of the Greek to Muslim to Christendom knowledge transfer took place in Spain. When the Muslim rulers left Spain they left behind vast libraries - and swarms of Jewish scholars who could translate.
Add Coffee to the list...
Muslims are the only culture (yes, the umma has existed since the 7th century, and it is inseperable from islam; Until the 20th century, there was no word in arabic for "country.") with the arrogance to claim that a name they used for things existing and understood for millennia, not only can, but should be claimed by their culture.
The Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, all knew and named constellations. But none, so far as I know had the presumption to claim that they "discovered" them.
Same with math, medicine, mechanics, architecture, engineering. Islam conquered countries and cultures, adopted their knowledge, then froze all future progress in its tracks.
If it's not in the queer-an, it is not worth knowing. Ignorance, illiteracy and stupidity are islams's main contribution to history.
Then you’ll have to explain why the first algebra problem was:
If Ali starts riding his camel from Mecca toward Riyadh at 2 mph, and Khalil starts riding his camel from Riyadh toward Mecca at 3 mph, how far from Mecca will they meet? The distance from Riyadh to Mecca is 546 miles. For extra credit, how far from Mecca will they meet if Ali stops three times to kill infidels along the way, taking an hour for each stop? Show your work.
I prefer the Greek and Roman names, but no one other than astronomers really care.
Nothing Arabic can possible be cool. Even their most magnificent architects were Jews, even if they were given Arabic names.
just for the sake of argument, lets say Mūsā al-Khwārizmī actually did invent algebra, all that means is that a PERSIAN invented it, the fact he was a muslime has zero, zip, nada to do with it.
Algebra used to be called “Euclid” and goddammit...Euclid was no moozlimb.!
My Dad sez if there wasn’t oil in the Middle East they would all be fighting over who stole whose camel and no one would give a flying turkey trot what happened there.
And yet Archimedes was doing calculus prior to Christ.
Sorry, they can’t claim the naming of stars either.
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