Thread by @SagasofBharat

THREAD 🧵 ALGEBRA : A gift of Hindus to the world

Mohammedans often falsely take credit for the invention of Algebra. Even though treatise on bījagaṇita (the correct term for algebra) existed & was extensively used in India much before the birth of Mohamedan religion itself.

In popular culture Algebra gets wrongly credited to Al khwarizmi for his book Kitab Al-Jabr. However all three of His books Kitab Al-Jabr, Kitāb al Hisāb al-Hindī (Book of Indian Mathematics), and Zīj al-Sindhind (Astronomy Table from India) are plagiarised from the works of Hindus, the last 2 books directly mentioning Indian mathematics as his source.

The myth that he invented Algebra is wrongly believed due to the influence of his books in Europe.

HOW MATHEMATICS REACHED BAGHDAD:

Iranian scholar Al Beruni writes Indian scholars carried with them Brahma Siddhanta of Brahma Gupta to Baghdad during the rule of Khalif Mansur who patronised Al Khwarizmi to write his books from the knowledge they gained from these Indian scholars.

In the very translation of Al Khwarizmi’s book, the translator mentions in the preface that he was not the INVENTOR OF THE ART(ALGEBRA)

That itself dismisses the claim that Algebra was invented by Mohamedans. It was rather a blatant plagiarism.

Infact he deduce from the manner of Al khwarizmi’s own words that he himself never claimed to be the inventor of Algebra.

He says that the Caliph Mamun encouraged him to write on a popular work on algebra which implies the other treatises on Algebra were already extant.

He concludes from the work that the information contained in it is derived from indian source.

Muhammad Ben Musa Al Khwarizmi was conversant with Hindu science is further evident from the fact he abridged at Al Mamun’s request, The SindHind translated by Al Fazari from the work of an Indian astronomer who visited the court of Al Mansur.

Translator of Al Khwarizmi’s work is the same as taught by Diophantus & Hindu Mathematicians.

However he rejects that Khwarizmi learnt his treatise from Diophantus on the premise that he wasn’t known to them. He concludes that the work was plagiarised from Hindus.

H.T ColeBrooke was the first to introduce it to more general notice. Guess what, his work itself was named Algebra with Arithmetic & mensuration from the Sanscrit of Brahmagupta & Bhascara.

In the book Colebrooke completely dismisses Arabs of any credit for Algebra and affirms that they learnt algebra from Hindus as Greek works weren’t known to them by then.

Colebrooke also confirms that earliest knowledge of Algebra comes from Aryabhata but even he credits his work to much earlier Hindu writers.

So the Hindus & Greeks were contemporary in terms of invention of Algebra.

However, in comparison Hindus had a much advanced algebra that wasn’t known to Greeks.

Many other Mathematicians have come to the same conclusion that Mohamedans Plagiarised Algebra from Hindus.

One such Mathematician John Wallis, in his Treatise of Algebra both Historical & Practical writes how Arabs learnt Algebra from Indians.

Another Polymath Hieronymus Cardanus, in his Ars Magna mentions that the work of Al Khwarizmi is merely a translation.

Therefore it leaves no doubt that it is wrong to credit a mere plagiarist to be a creator of Algebra and history needs to be corrected.