Every time a social media feed refreshes or a search engine returns results, it’s running an algorithm. That word – so central to modern technology – traces back more than a thousand years to a single mathematician working in 9th-century Persia.
His name was Muhammad ibn Musa al-Kharizmi, and his influence on mathematics reached far beyond his own era. He helped solidify the concept of algorithms as a formal tool in mathematics, and he popularized both algebra and the use of zero – two things that would eventually make modern computing possible. NPR reported on his legacy Wednesday, June 11, 2026, as part of its ongoing word history series.
The name behind the math
Al-Kharizmi’s name itself became the word. Medieval European scholars translating his Arabic texts into Latin rendered his name phonetically – and over centuries, “al-Kharizmi” became “algorismus,” then “algorithm.” The man’s name, in other words, is now a standard entry in every computer science textbook.
He also gave algebra its name. The word comes from “al-jabr,” a term from the title of one of his major works. That’s two foundational branches of mathematics and computing with direct etymological ties to the same person.
Zero’s role in his work is less about naming and more about spread. Al-Kharizmi wrote in a way that made the concept accessible and usable across the Islamic world and, eventually, Europe – at a time when much of Western mathematics still relied on Roman numerals, which have no zero and make complex calculation deeply awkward.
NPR did not detail which specific texts al-Kharizmi produced or where he worked, beyond placing him in the 9th century. The broader scholarly record puts him at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, though that detail wasn’t part of Wednesday’s report.
His influence on daily life in 2026 is hard to overstate – but al-Kharizmi himself left behind no confirmed portraits, no birthdate, and no death record that modern historians agree on. The image accompanying NPR’s report was credited to photographer Guillaume Souvant.
Reported by NPR. Read the original report.
