Arabic in the Sciences
On Indian Reckoning
الحساب الهنديّ
Al-Khwarizmi's treatise on Indian reckoning is lost in Arabic but survives in Latin; through it Europe learned the Indian numerals, zero and place value. Its opening words, 'Dixit Algorizmi' ('al-Khwarizmi said'), gave us the word algorithm.
- Author
- Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (d. c. 847)
- Field
- Mathematics
- Arabic title
- كتابُ الجمع والتفريق بحساب الهند (أو: كتاب حساب العدد الهنديّ) – العنوان العربيّ غير مؤكَّد، والأصلُ العربيّ مفقود
- Latin title
- Dixit Algorizmi (modern title from its opening words); also cited as Algoritmi de numero Indorum
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Sources
- G. J. Toomer, 'Al-Khwarizmi', DSB (PDF via MacTutor)
- Arabic and Latin Corpus (Würzburg): Dixit Algorizmi, Latin (Folkerts–Kunitzsch edition)
- Folkerts & Kunitzsch, Die älteste lateinische Schrift über das indische Rechnen (BAdW, online edition)
- Cambridge Digital Library: MS Ii.6.5 (the Cambridge manuscript, digitised)
- C. Burnett, 'The Arabic origins and development of Latin algorisms in the twelfth century', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy
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