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Secondary sourceBook1831

The Algebra of Mohammed ben Musa

Fredrick Rosen · 1831

Frederic Rosen's 1831 edition and English translation of al-Khwarizmi's Arabic algebra manuscript, the book that introduced his work to modern readers.

This is a title page of the edition that preserved and translated al-Khwarizmi's foundational algebra text for modern readers.

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Title page in Arabic script of al-Kitab al-Mukhtasar fi Hisab al-Jabr wa al-Muqabala, composed by Al-Sheikh Al-Ajal Abi Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarazmi, printed in London 1830 AH.
Frederic Rosen, The Algebra of Mohammed ben Musa, 1831 edition.

About this source

What it is

This is the frontispiece of Frederic Rosen's 1831 edition, which printed the Arabic text of al-Kitab al-Mukhtasar fi Hisab al-Jabr wa al-Muqabala alongside an English translation. The Arabic work was composed by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, and Rosen based his edition on an Oxford manuscript.

Why it matters

Rosen's edition made al-Khwarizmi's algebra available to European scholars and students for the first time in English, and it remains the classic English text used to study the work. It shows how a 9th-century Arabic mathematical treatise reached the modern world through 19th-century scholarship.

Look closer

  • Why might it take centuries for a mathematical text to be translated into another language?
  • What does the title page tell us about who made this edition and why?
  • How might Rosen's translation differ from al-Khwarizmi's original wording or meaning?

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

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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

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Algebra Manuscript, Bodleian MS. Huntington 214

Muḥammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi · 1342

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Secondary source

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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

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Zij Manuscript, Corpus Christi College MS 283

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