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Tertiary sourceArtifact1983

Soviet postage stamp for the 1200th anniversary of al-Khwarizmi

А. Адашев · 1983

A 1983 Soviet stamp marking the 1200th anniversary of al-Khwarizmi's birth, showing the imagined portrait that shaped how he is popularly pictured today.

This commemorative stamp created the popular imagined image of al-Khwarizmi, as no portrait from his lifetime survives.

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Soviet postage stamp, 4 kopecks, issued 1983 for the 1200th anniversary of al-Khwarizmi. Blue background with a brown-toned engraved portrait of a bearded man in a white turban. Gold ornamental border, a brass-colored astrolabe-like instrument at left, and Cyrillic text reading 'ПОЧТА СССР', '1983', '1200 ЛЕТ', and 'Мухаммед аль-Хорезми'.
А. Адашев, Soviet postage stamp for the 1200th anniversary of al-Khwarizmi, 1983.

About this source

What it is

This is a Soviet postage stamp, worth 4 kopecks, issued in 1983 to mark the 1200th anniversary of the birth of al-Khwarizmi. It shows an engraved portrait of a bearded man in a turban along with an astrolabe-like instrument and Cyrillic text naming him.

Why it matters

No portrait of al-Khwarizmi survives from his own lifetime, so this stamp's imagined likeness has become one of the most widely reproduced images of him. The stamp also shows how Soviet Central Asia, where al-Khwarizmi was born, claimed him as a national and scientific figure centuries after his death.

Why it matters

Look closer

  • Since no real portrait of al-Khwarizmi exists, where do you think the artist got the idea for this face?
  • Why might a government issue a stamp celebrating a mathematician who lived over a thousand years earlier?
  • What does the astrolabe on the stamp suggest about how al-Khwarizmi is remembered?

This artifact 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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