Words I love, words I breathe.

One of the most widely used words today is “algorithm”. But few people know its origin.

It comes to us via a 9th century Muslim astronomer and mathematician, al-Khwārizmī.

He was one of the leading scholars in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad at the time.

He made remarkable contributions to geography, astronomy, mathematics and algebra. Over time, his name was translated into Latin as algoritmi, which then became algorithm in English.