Arabic Math History

View a note on these timelines.

When the Arabs conquered Syria, Palestine and Egypt, they inherited much of the Greco-Roman mathematical heritage and did a good job of preserving it. While the Arab civilisation declined in the second millennium of the Christian Era due to waves of Turkish and Mongol invaders (and fundamentalist Moroccan invaders in Spain), their enthusiasm for mathematics survived long enough to be passed to Christian Spain and from there to Italy and the rest of Europe.

750 A.D.

Arabian mathematicians adopt what we now call the Arabic number system. This system was imported from India.

820 A.D.

Al Khowarizmi (his name is where the English word "algorithm" (see glossary) comes from) makes significant advances in algebra.

875 A.D.

Thabit ibn Qurra writes his Book on the Determination of Amicable Numbers.

1000 A.D.

Alhazen states that light travels from visible objects to the eyes, not vice versa. This discovery is a significant step towards the theory of perspective.

1100 A.D.

Omar Khayyam studies cubic equations and calendar reform.

Mathematics timeline