Al-Khowarizmi wrote several important books, like Al-jabr wa’l muqabala, a treatise on how to solve elementary equations; the Al-jabr in the title (which means something like “completion”) gave us the term algebra. He also wrote a book about the Hindu numeral system, which allowed the new style of numbers to spread quickly through the Arab world—along with algorithms, the tricks for multiplying and dividing Hindu numerals quickly. In fact, the word algorithm was a corruption of al-Khowarizmi’s name. Though the Arabs took the notation from India, the rest of the world would dub the new system
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