Page:The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911).djvu/17

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EARLY IDEAS OF THEIR ORIGIN
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learning and one to whom the world is much indebted for its present knowledge of algebra[1] and of arithmetic. Of him there will often be occasion to speak; and in the arithmetic which he wrote, and of which Adelhard of Bath[2] (c. 1130) may have made the translation or paraphrase,[3] he stated distinctly that the numerals were due to the Hindus.[4] This is as plainly asserted by later Arab

    also Verhandlungen des 5. Congresses der Orientalisten, Berlin, 1882, Vol. II, p. 19; W. Spitta-Bey in the Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenländ. Gesellschaft, Vol. XXXIII, p. 224; Steinschneider in the Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenländ. Gesellschaft, Vol. L, p. 214; Treutlein in the Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Vol. 1, p. 5; Suter, "Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke," Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Vol. X, Leipzig, 1900, p. 10, and "Nachträge," in Vol. XIV, p.158; Cantor, Geschichte der Mathematik, Vol. 1, 3d ed., pp. 712–733 etc.; F. Woepcke in Propagation, p. 489. So recently has he become known that Heilbronner, writing in 1742, merely mentions him as "Ben-Musa, inter Arabes celebris Geometra, seripsit de figuris planis & sphericis." [Historia matheseos universæ, Leipzig, 1742, p. 438.]

    In this work most of the Arabic names will be transliterated substantially as laid down by Suter in his work Die Mathematiker etc., except where this violates English pronunciation. The scheme of pronunciation of oriental names is set forth in the preface.

  1. ↑ Our word algebra is from the title of one of his works, Al-jabr wa'l-muqābalah, Completion and Comparison. The work was translated into English by F. Rosen, London, 1831, and treated in L'Algèbre d'al-Khārizmi et les méthodes indienne et grecque, Léon Rodet, Paris, 1878, extract from the Journal Asiatique. For the derivation of the word algebra, see Cossali, Scritti Inediti, pp. 381–383, Rome, 1857; Leonardo's Liber Abbaci (1202), p. 410, Rome, 1857; both published by B. Boncompagni. "Almuchabala" also was used as a name for algebra.
  2. ↑ This learned scholar, teacher of O'Creat who wrote the Helceph ("Prologus N. Ocreati in Helceph ad Adelardum Batensem magistrum suum"), studied in Toledo, learned Arabic, traveled as far east as Egypt, and brought from the Levant numerous manuscripts for study and translation. See Henry in the Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Vol. III, p. 181; Woepcke in Propagation, p. 518.
  3. ↑ The title is Algoritmi de numero Indorum. That he did not make this translation is asserted by Eneström in the Bibliotheca Mathematica, Vol. I (3), p. 520.
  4. ↑ Thus he speaks "de numero indorum per .IX. literas," and proceeds: "Dixit algoritmi: Cum uidissem yndos constituisse .IX. literas
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