Abbasid Caliphate · about 780-850

Al-Khwarizmi and the birth of algebra

A scholar in Baghdad wrote the book that gave us the word "algebra", and his name gave us "algorithm". Students follow numbers from India to Baghdad to Europe and try a problem in his style.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 800 to AD 820
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

A scholar in Baghdad wrote the book that gave us the word "algebra", and his name gave us "algorithm". Students follow numbers from India to Baghdad to Europe and try a problem in his style.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain where the words "algebra" and "algorithm" come from.
  • Trace how the Indian numerals traveled through Baghdad to Europe on the map.
  • Solve a simple word problem in the way al-Khwarizmi described.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 800

Khwarazm

Open the map in 800 and zoom in on the land south of the Aral Sea. This is Khwarazm, where al-Khwarizmi's family came from. Which river feeds this oasis?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 820

All roads to Baghdad

Turn on the Trade Routes layer and follow the Silk Road from Samarkand to Baghdad. Why did scholars from all over the caliphate end up in Baghdad?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 820

Numbers from India

Zoom out until you see both Baghdad and India. Al-Khwarizmi wrote a book on the Indian way of counting with ten digits. Which sea route on the map links Baghdad with India?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Al-Khwarizmi wrote his algebra in words, without symbols like x. Why might that make it harder?
  2. His book solved real problems of inheritance, trade and measuring land. Why do rulers and merchants need mathematics?
  3. The word "algorithm" comes from his name. Where do you meet algorithms in daily life?
  4. Roman numerals had no zero. What can you do with ten digits and a zero that is hard to do with Roman numerals?
  5. Ideas traveled from India to Baghdad to Europe. Who should get the credit for the numbers we use?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Charlemagne, who ruled in the same years. Discuss: Charlemagne's clerks still counted with Roman numerals. How could better mathematics help a ruler run a kingdom (taxes, calendars, building)?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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