Also, I always find it interesting how every such article insists on attributing such achievements to the religion rather than the region, even if they have to refer to modern country names, or even use terms such as Persian and Arabic.
>It is true that in two respects the work of al-Khowarizmi represented a retrogression from that of Diophantus. First, it is on a far more elementary level than that found in the Diophantine problems and, second, the algebra of al-Khowarizmi is thoroughly rhetorical, with none of the syncopation found in the Greek Arithmetica or in Brahmagupta's work. Even numbers were written out in words rather than symbols! It is quite unlikely that al-Khwarizmi knew of the work of Diophantus, but he must have been familiar with at least the astronomical and computational portions of Brahmagupta; yet neither al-Khwarizmi nor other Arabic scholars made use of syncopation or of negative numbers. Nevertheless, the Al-jabr comes closer to the elementary algebra of today than the works of either Diophantus or Brahmagupta, because the book is not concerned with difficult problems in indeterminant analysis but with a straight forward and elementary exposition of the solution of equations, especially that of second degree. The Arabs in general loved a good clear argument from premise to conclusion, as well as systematic organization – respects in which neither Diophantus nor the Hindus excelled.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi...
> In his early 20s, Fibonacci traveled to the Middle East, captivated by ideas that had come west from India through Persia. When he returned to Italy, Fibonacci published Liber Abbaci, one of the first Western works to describe the Hindu-Arabic numeric system.
Yes - I agree that some scholarship tends to bunch all of the middle east under one umbrella. There were Persian scholars and Arab scholars - and that too is quite a broad term. However, there is some merit in there as well as at that time those regions were under Islamic caliphates of one kind or another (Abbasid/Umayyad etc).
Zero, with "Arabic" numbering, certainly originated in Northern India. Was it "Hindu"? The people credited with inventing it certainly were. But they may have learned much from the Harappans, whose work is today wholly unknown.
Persians and Egyptians, many of them Muslim, created a great deal of new mathematics, building upon older works. They also invented, in all its details, what we now call science. It was introduced to Europe on the back of a book, Optics, by Al-Haytham. The earliest European scientists freely admitted their debt to him.
Appreciation for higher learning in the medieval Islamic world was no more universal than in Renaissance Europe, or in our modern world, but it was honored in pockets, for just barely enough centuries to catch on in similarly restricted pockets of Europe.
Is modern science Christian? Not if you believe many Christians. But many of the people who built science atop translations from Arabic were very seriously Christian.
Higher learning is always anomalous wherever it blossoms, and always treated with suspicion by many in both church and government everywhere. It doesn't belong to any culture or people. We can honor anyone, anywhere, who fostered it, whatever their ancestors' or descendents' failings.
The word Hindu is derived (through Persian) from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, which is first mentioned in the Rig Veda. - google
I couldn't find a definitive reference. There is this short scholarly article from 1920, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1834924?seq=13#metadata_info_ta.... And this series of articles about Sicily's history, http://www.bestofsicily.com/history.htm
One key figure seems to have been Adelard of Bath. "He is known both for his original works and for translating many important Arabic and Greek scientific works of astrology, astronomy, philosophy and mathematics into Latin from Arabic versions, which were then introduced to Western Europe." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelard_of_Bath
Persian and Arabic are not accurate depictions of what is mean. The correct word is indeed Islamic, as in Islamic civilization and Islamic system. It was very much something at the time, beyond just religion.
When trying to be more specific, they do use words such as Persian.
Also, a lot of the mathematics was indeed indigenous to the Islamic world.
The reason it is tagged “Islamic” is presumably because the golden age of Persian/Arabic science happened in unison with the early rise of Islam, along with a blooming of industry and culture in general. This may not have been coincidental. The early Islamic world was a lot more inquisitive and open-minded than the western world of the time. It wasn’t till a couple centuries later that reactionary religious conservatism gained the upper hand; and several centuries more before Europe would best its own reactionary religious conservatism in shape of the Renaissance.
Physicist Jim al-Khalili has written on the subject:
https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinders-Golden-Age-Arabic-Science...
(Also some documentaries if you want to search on Youtube.)
The rest of your comment is wonderful. Unfortunately, introducing it in a hostile way creates a barrier that's more than just a speed bump. Mentioning in a friendly way the article refers to Hindu-Arabic numerals would make a much better intro.
You weren't being kind. Kindness isn't relative to how bad another comment is or you feel it is. It's a quality of what you yourself respond with.
The rest of your comment was great, but if you begin by tweaking people, it's not reasonable to expect them to learn from the rest of what you write. They're just going to smart from the slap, and respond as badly or (probably) worse.
Would you mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of this site more to heart? We'd appreciate it. The idea is curious conversation, rather than the sniping and fault-finding (and worse) that dominates most of the internet.
I wish the article defined what their definition of "modern mathematics" is. It's primary focus is on the transfer of the Hindu-Arabic to Europe. What is it about the transfer of the numeral system to europe that made it "modern".
Also, wasn't "modern mathematics" officially formalized fairly recently? The early 20th century?
I am aware, but ignorant of the "rules" that the BBC follows. Some internal script to moderate, guideline and direct what they publish, how they publish, etc.
Then again the same can be said of any government backed, funded news agency. But I do agree alot of Islamic math is given, even to defaults such as "arabic numbers."
But this is above what I know. :) It's something I'd like to narrow down, learn and discover, but it's just quite a bit of info to take.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu%E2%80%93Arabic_numeral...
Modern Islam is pretty strongly anti-science and has been for half its existence - since the end of the golden age. So it's probably not enlightening to think of those ancient people as being part of the same group as modern Muslims. It's almost a different religion. Then, it was open to free thinking and tolerant of outsiders and non-Muslims. Now, it's socially conservative, rigid in what thoughts are allowed, isolationist and intolerant of anyone critical of the religion.