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Dixit Algorizmi

Muḥammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

A Latin manuscript opening 'Dixit Algorizmi', copied from al-Khwarizmi's lost arithmetic on Hindu numerals and the origin of the word 'algorithm'.

This Latin copy transmits al-Khwarizmi's lost arithmetic text and preserves the origin of the word 'algorithm', derived from his name.

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Black-and-white scan of a medieval Latin manuscript page. A large decorated initial D with ornate knotwork sits at upper left, and the text begins with 'DIXIT algorizmi' in dense handwritten script. A folio number 104 appears at top right.
Latin manuscript beginning 'Dixit Algorizmi', based on al-Khwarizmi's work on Hindu numerals. Cambridge University Library, MS Ii.6.5.

About this source

What it is

This is a page from a Latin manuscript held at Cambridge University Library, beginning with the words 'Dixit Algorizmi' ('Al-Khwarizmi said'). It derives from al-Khwarizmi's original Arabic work on arithmetic using Hindu numerals, which is itself lost.

Why it matters

Through Latin translations like this one, al-Khwarizmi's explanation of place-value decimal numbers reached medieval Europe. His Latinized name, Algorizmi, is the source of the word 'algorithm'. The title used for this text was actually given by a later scholar, Baldassarre Boncompagni, in the nineteenth century.

Look closer

  • What does it mean that the original Arabic text no longer survives, and we only have this Latin version?
  • Why might a translator's choice of words, like 'Dixit Algorizmi', become permanently attached to a person's name?
  • How did the spread of Hindu-Arabic numerals change the way people in Europe did calculations?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Al-Khwarizmi on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Manuscript title page in Arabic script with a decorated gold-and-brown border. The large heading reads the title of al-Khwarizmi's algebra work, with smaller lines of text beneath in a calligraphic hand, on aged parchment.Book

Primary source

Al-Jabr

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Open manuscript of two facing pages covered in handwritten Arabic script in brown ink on aged, yellowed paper, with small geometric diagrams drawn in red ink with labeled letters near the bottom of each page. The page edges are dark against a black background.Book

Primary source

Algebra Manuscript, Bodleian MS. Huntington 214

Muḥammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi · 1342

Two facing pages of an Arabic manuscript with black ink text in the margins and a colored diagram in the center: a blue and red river system with branching channels and lakes, a green rectangular panel on the left, and a brown curved shape on the right. Labels in Arabic are written along the diagram.Artifact

Primary source

Earliest Extant Map of the Nile

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Secondary source

Zij Manuscript, Corpus Christi College MS 283

Title page of an Arabic book. Large decorative calligraphic title reads الفهرست لابن النديم. Below is the date سنة ١٣٤٨ هـ. Lower text gives the publisher's details in Arabic, and a faint pencil note in Latin letters reads al-Nadim, Ibn-abi-Ya'qub at top left.Book

Secondary source

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