The scholars of Transoxiana and Khwarazm

In the Arab Caliphate Arabic became both the language of state and of science; in the 9th century the “House of Wisdom” was set up in Baghdad, with a library and observatory, and ancient Greek and Indian works were translated into Arabic. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (783–850), born in Khwarazm, worked in the House of Wisdom under Ma’mun; his “Al-jabr wa’l-muqabala” gave the word “algebra” its name, and his own name survives in “algorithm”. Ahmad al-Farghani (797–865), an astronomer born in Quva, took part in measuring one degree of the Earth’s meridian and is known in Europe as Alfraganus. Abu Nasr al-Farabi (873–950), born in the city of Farab, wrote over a hundred works on philosophy, logic and music and is called the “Aristotle of the East”. Abu Ali ibn Sina (980–1037), born near Bukhara, wrote the five-volume “al-Qanun fi’t-tibb”, which served for centuries as a guide in European medicine. Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (973–1048), born in Kath, wrote on astronomy, geography and history (“The Remains of Past Ages”, “India”). In 1004 the “Ma’mun Academy” took shape in Khwarazm and gathered scholars; after 1017 many were taken to Ghazna.