1.

0 INTRODUCTION

The five pillars in Islam plays a significant role in the development of mathematics by Muslims
scholars. The two of the main pillar in Islam is the ritual of five times praying (solat) and the
fasting month of Ramadan that is responsible for the mathematical astronomy development.
Furthermore, the five times praying ritual requires the correct times for praying and the
direction of praying which is called the qiblat. The Muslims must pray facing the direction of
the sacred Mosques which is known as the Kaaba. Kaaba is an ancient shrine in the Mecca.
Therefore, the Muslim needs some tools in order to estimate the correct timing for prayers
and direction of the Kaaba.

The Islamic Mathematics develop during the Abbasids era where a revolution has been
done in order to overthrown the Umayyad regime. A new family of caliph has been emerged
as the ruler and the rise of bureaucracy has been observed. During this era of Abbasid, the
city Baghdad has flourished as the intellectual development center. Baghdad at that time was
at cultural crossroads, and, under the patronage of the Abbasid caliphs, the so-called House
of Wisdom at Baghdad, produced a Golden Age of Arabic science and mathematics. In
Baghdad, scholars encountered and built upon the ideas of ancient Greek and Indian
mathematicians. A massive transliteration work from the Greek, Sanskrit and other relevant
resources has been done in order for the Muslims to understand the advancement of
education. Muslims scholars admit that they are inspired by the Indian Algebra. They
recognize the Indian Algebra and commented on the algebra easy to understand.

The most popular Islamic scholar is Muhammad bin Musa Al Khwarizmi for his
contribution in Islamic mathematics. Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Musa al- Khwarizmi if the
scholars full name was born at Khwarizm, a town which located at the Uzbekistan. Al-
Khwarizmi is the Father of Algebra which is an important branch in Mathematics. Algebra
studies the relationship between things that vary over time. Al- Khwarizmi utilized and
absorbed the Indian algebra in order to solve problem related to Muslims such as inheritance,
measuring land, tax collection, legacies, partitions and trades. Al-Khwarizmi has encountered
the Indian numeral system at the Bayt Al-Hikma and develops the Arabic numeral that we are
using up until now that is the Hindu-Arabic numeral systems.
2.0 CONTRIBUTION OF ISLAMIC MATHEMATICS

As discussed earlier that Al-Khwarizmi is the father of the algebra and in this field Islamic
mathematics provides a huge contribution to the modern mathematics. Al-Khwarizmi
important work is the al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala or it is known as
The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion[or Restoring] and Balancing in English
translation. This book explains quadratic and linear equation with six examples. This includes
the process of moving the subtracted quantity to the other side which is known as the Al-jabr
and subtracting the equal unknown from both side of the equation (al-muqabala).One of the
example from the book is as follows:-

Question: If from a square, I subtract four of its roots and then take one-third of the
remainder, finding this equal to four of the roots, the square will be 256.

Al-Khwarizmi explanation: Since one-third of the remainder is equal to four roots, one
knows that the remainder itself will equal 12 roots. Therefore, add this to the four, giving
16 roots. This (16) is the root of the square.

The above can also be stated in terms of modern notation:-

1/3 (x2 - 4x) = 4x.
Therefore x = 16.

Own understanding from what al-Khwarizmi equation:-

1/3 (x2 - 4x) = 4x.

x2 - 4x = 12x
x2 = 12x + 4x
x= 16

From the example above it is clearly understood that al-Khwarizmi aware of moving of
operation in order to solve the algebra equations.
He also the first to reduce an linear or quadratic equations. The reduced equation can be
listed as follows:-

1. Squares equal to roots. Example: ax2 = bx

2. Squares equal to numbers. Example: ax2 = b
3. Roots equal to numbers. Example: ax = b
4. Squares and roots equal to numbers. Example: ax2 + bx = c, e.g. x2 + 10 x = 39.
5. Squares and numbers equal to roots. Example: ax2 + c = bx, e.g. x2 + 21 = 10 x
6. Roots and numbers equal to squares. Example: ax2 = bx + c, e.g. 3x + 4 = x2.

Al-Khwarizmi also gives a Geometric proof based on the algebra. Further illustration is given
in diagram below:-
 From the square number 1, Al-Khwarizmi understand that the sides of the square is
equal. Therefore, he denote both the two side as x and derive the area of the square as x2.
In the example 2, he add 4 rectangle to the square with each area of rectangle is 5x/2.
Addition of the four rectangle will give us 10x. Thus the equation for the example 2 is x2 +
10x. In the diagram 3, it is assumed that the area of the square and the four rectangle (x2 +
10x) is equal to 39 and a new small square with area of 25/4 has been added to the
quadrilateral. The total area of the four small square will equal to 25. Therefore, the whole
area of the large square is equal to 39 + 25 = 64. 64 is a perfect square, thus each value of
the side is equal to 8 for the large square. By taking on the side, we can develop a new
equation of x + 5/2 + 5/2 = 8. Note that the 5/2 is obtained from Small Square as the area
is 25/2, thus the side is 5/2. The new equation can be reduced to x+5 = 8, therefore the
value of x is 3.

Other contribution of al-Khwarizmi that has been identified from the book Al-Khwarizmi
on the Hindu Art of Reckoning are the use of zero, development of decimal systems, arithmetic
procedure for operation involving the fractions, develop calculus of two errors that leads to
the concept of differentiation. Furthermore, al-Khwarizmi also contributed to the astronomy
by developing calendar and identifying true position of sun, moon and planets that is essential
for the identification of holy month of Ramadan. Other Muslim scholars include Yaqub ibn
Ishaq al-Kindi that has wrote 4 books on the number system and develops spherical geometry-
astronomy, Jamshid al-Kashi that contribute to the calculation of Pi, Thabit Ibn Qurra
contribute the real numbers, integral calculus and spherical trigonometry and Abul Wafa
Muhammad al-Buzja that contribute to parabola by points and regular hexagon.