---
title: "Al-Khwarizmi: Father of Algebra | Model Diplomat"
description: "Al-Khwarizmi was a 9th-century Persian polymath who founded algebra and introduced the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, influencing mathematics worldwide."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/al-khwarizmi"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- Al-Khwārizmī was a 9th-century Persian polymath of the Abbasid House of Wisdom whose works founded algebra and transmitted the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to the world.
- Why is al-Khwārizmī called the 'father of algebra'?
- What is the connection between al-Khwārizmī and the word 'algorithm'?
- Under which caliph and institution did al-Khwārizmī work?
- How did al-Khwārizmī's work reach Europe?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

Al-Khwārizmī was a 9th-century Persian polymath of the Abbasid House of Wisdom whose works founded algebra and transmitted the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to the world.

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In c. 820 CE, working at Caliph al-Maʾmūn's House of Wisdom in Baghdad, al-Khwārizmī completed his \*Kitāb al-jabr wa-l-muqābala\*, the treatise that founded algebra as an independent mathematical science.

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