al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala

Dook · November 8th, 2002, 9:17 am

Algabra comes from the arab word al-jabr, meaning completion.I remember another word used in mathematics today that comes from an arab word, but I forgot what it was.Is there anyone out there who can help me with this?Thank's in advance. Dook

filthy · November 8th, 2002, 9:26 am

the term Algorithm is derived fromthe name "Al Khwarazmi ", an arab mathematician

Dook · November 8th, 2002, 9:41 am

filthy,Tanks! That's what I meant.

shrizvi12 · November 8th, 2002, 12:15 pm

Dook, the Arabic word Jabr means "difficult", "forced" or "determination". The most common meaning of Jabr can be infered from the fact that its opposite is "free-will".

Dook · November 8th, 2002, 12:46 pm

shrizvi12,I read somewhere that al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala meansThe compendious book on calculation by completion and balancing, and that al-jabr means completion.Dook

shrizvi12 · November 8th, 2002, 5:27 pm

Well, Drook I will tell you word-by-word translation of the book's name:Al-Kitab (The Book) Al-Mukhtasar (The Brief) Fi Hisab (of Arithmatic) Al-Jabr (Difficult or Forced) wa'l Muqabala (And Balance or Opposits).I appreciate that word-to-word translation can miss sprite of the sentence, and if I were to translate the full book's name I would say something similar to what you said.

DominicConnor · November 11th, 2002, 8:14 am

Interesting use of the word "completion", since "hatling" is a fundamental part of understanding algorithms.

Moon · November 11th, 2002, 9:47 pm

Shrizvi12 and Dook,I asked a very profecient person in Arabic who agrees more with Dook's explanation (...and don't see any 'iconism' in this support ), adding that it's rather the word 'Ijbar' (whose verbal form is 'ajbara') which refers to the notion of 'forced'...As far as am concerned, I believe that since arabic is nothing but a semitic language (like aramean and hebrew) it's not excluded that both words have the same root or ethymology. Moon.

Moon · November 11th, 2002, 9:55 pm

DCFC,Could you please explain what does 'hateling' correspond to?(am not familiar to this terminology... ) Thanks,Moon.

DominicConnor · November 12th, 2002, 8:38 am

Ooops I meant "halting".sorry.