Al-Khwarizmi

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Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a mathematician who lived in Baghdad around the year 830. He invented algebra and wrote a book about algebra. Therefore he is often called "the father of algebra". He also wrote a book on the "Indian numbers" and how to add and subtract them. During the Middle Ages mathematicians in Europe read his book. They called these numbers "Arabic numbers" (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, ...) and used them instead of the "Roman numbers" (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, ...). It is easier to do mathematics with Arabic numbers. The Roman numbers also has no number zero.