I always find it satisfying to be able to apportion blame for things, so I was delighted to learn that Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi is known as the father of algebra (the word algorithm ...

Al-Khwarizmi was born in about AD 780, and although his birthplace isn’t known for sure, the al-Khwārizmī in his name can mean “the native of Khwarazm”, which at the time was part of ...