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An exerpt from here.
If you ever failed algebra, forgot your algorithms, or struggled in chemistry, you might blame it on ancient history instead of your highschool teacher. Al-jabr (algebra), al-khowarazimi (algorithm), and al-kimiya (achemy/chemistry) all originated from the Arab civilization in what is now modern-day Iraq. After the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century, Baghdad became the capital of scholarship in the Near East. Merchants, scientists, and other intellects from as far as China traveled there, making it one of the most diverse and advanced cities of the time. Baghdad is one reputed bithplace of the Arabic-speaking mathematician Abu Abdullah Mohammed ibn Musa. Some sources say that he was born in Khwarizm, hence his other name: Al-kwarizmi ("the man from khwarizm"). It was one of Al-kwarizmi's books (known in Latin as Algoritmi de numero Indorum) which introduced algebra, algorithms, and "Arabic" numerals to the Western world. Not only did the title of this book the provide our word algorithm but it also explains why the Spanish for "digit" is guarismo. Before Algoritmi de numero Indorum appeared on the scene, European mathematicians had nothing but Roman numerals. Have you ever tried multiplying Roman numerals? How about deriving square roots? All such operations became a lot easier with a positional notation using Arabic numerals and the new concept - zero. Zero comes from the Arabic sifr, meaning “empty” as the symbol for "zero" represents an "empty" place in the positional notation. Some scholars believe that sifr comes from the Sanskrit shunya, "empty" as the Arabs did not invent their numerals, they borrowed them from the Indians. But, to be fair, the Indians got the idea from the Babylonians so we end up back in Iraq. Even closer to sifr in sound is cipher (which has two meanings: "a code" and "zero") and the French verb chiffre, "quantify".
If you ever failed algebra, forgot your algorithms, or struggled in chemistry, you might blame it on ancient history instead of your highschool teacher. Al-jabr (algebra), al-khowarazimi (algorithm), and al-kimiya (achemy/chemistry) all originated from the Arab civilization in what is now modern-day Iraq. After the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century, Baghdad became the capital of scholarship in the Near East. Merchants, scientists, and other intellects from as far as China traveled there, making it one of the most diverse and advanced cities of the time. Baghdad is one reputed bithplace of the Arabic-speaking mathematician Abu Abdullah Mohammed ibn Musa. Some sources say that he was born in Khwarizm, hence his other name: Al-kwarizmi ("the man from khwarizm"). It was one of Al-kwarizmi's books (known in Latin as Algoritmi de numero Indorum) which introduced algebra, algorithms, and "Arabic" numerals to the Western world. Not only did the title of this book the provide our word algorithm but it also explains why the Spanish for "digit" is guarismo. Before Algoritmi de numero Indorum appeared on the scene, European mathematicians had nothing but Roman numerals. Have you ever tried multiplying Roman numerals? How about deriving square roots? All such operations became a lot easier with a positional notation using Arabic numerals and the new concept - zero. Zero comes from the Arabic sifr, meaning “empty” as the symbol for "zero" represents an "empty" place in the positional notation. Some scholars believe that sifr comes from the Sanskrit shunya, "empty" as the Arabs did not invent their numerals, they borrowed them from the Indians. But, to be fair, the Indians got the idea from the Babylonians so we end up back in Iraq. Even closer to sifr in sound is cipher (which has two meanings: "a code" and "zero") and the French verb chiffre, "quantify".
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