Al-jabr: Birth

The birth of algebra, Baghdad, 820 AD

We have now seen the birth, evolution, and diffusion of writing systems as a space-time pattern in a histomap. The development of the modern alphabets radiate from a birth-point in ancient Greece, and appears on the histomap as a downward expanding cone or horn. Within this cone, the alphabets evolve into the practice of calligraphy as a spiritual practice, as in the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of Kells, and the Kufic Koran.

At this time, say 600 AD or so, the alphabet is a palimpsest of three layers tightly attached. That is, each letter has three layers of meaning:

the phonemic
the numeric
the spiritual

Histomap 1

Similary, we have viewed the birth, evolution, and discussion of number systems as a pattern on a histomap. The development of the modern number system from a birth-point in medieval India appears on the histomap as another downward radiating cone.

Histomap 2

These two cone-shaped patterns have been drawn on the same coordinate grid, which we have based on the histomaps of George G. Joseph. We now superimpose the two histomaps. The two cones overlap in a smaller cone. Within this smaller cone, the alphabet has been liberated from one of the three layers of the palimpsest. Only the phonemic and the spiritual remain attached.

Histomap 3

Notice that the two downward radiating cones meet in Baghdad in 820 AD. This coincidence is reiterated in the bibliography of Muhammed ben Musa, who wrote only two books:

On the Hindu numbers
On the Algebra

Our chemical analysis of the birth of algebra in this intersection of two diffusing reactants boils down to this:

The Hindu numbers dissolved the attachment of the symbols of the alphabet from numerics, thus liberating them for a new level of significance: the unknown variable of algeraic equations. In a time of revival of Euclid's Elements in a region of cultural shadow of the Babylonian arithmetic, Euclid's solutions to the algebraic problems of Babylonia by means of geomeric constuctions, known as geometrric algebra, stimulated the mathematicians of the Bait al Hikma to make use of this newly liberated symbol system for a fresh expression of the classics.