[6] Among them Glareanus: "Characteres simplices sunt nouem significatiui, ab Indis usque, siue Chaldaeis asciti .1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9. Est item unus .0 circulus, qui nihil significat." [_De VI. Arithmeticae practicae speciebvs_, Paris, 1539, fol. 9 of the 1543 edition.] [7] "Barbarische oder gemeine Ziffern." [Anonymous, _Das Einmahl Eins cum notis variorum_, Dresden, 1703, p. 3.] So Vossius (_De universae matheseos natura et constitutione liber_, Amsterdam, 1650, p. 34) calls them "Barbaras numeri notas." The word at that time was possibly synonymous with Arabic. [8] His full name was `Ab[=u] `Abdall[=a]h Mo[h.]ammed ibn M[=u]s[=a] al-Khow[=a]razm[=i]. He was born in Khow[=a]rezm, "the lowlands," the country about the present Khiva and bordering on the Oxus, and lived at Bagdad under the caliph al-M[=a]m[=u]n. He died probably between 220 and 230 of the Mohammedan era, that is, between 835 and 845 A.D., although some put the date as early as 812. The best account of this great scholar may be found in an article by C. Nallino, "Al-[H)]uw[=a]rizm[=i]" in the _Atti della R. Accad. dei Lincei_, Rome, 1896. See also _Verhandlungen des 5. Congresses der Orientalisten_, Berlin, 1882, Vol. II, p. 19; W. Spitta-Bey in the _Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenlaend. Gesellschaft_, Vol. XXXIII, p. 224; Steinschneider in the _Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenlaend. Gesellschaft_, Vol. L, p. 214; Treutlein in the _Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik_, Vol. I, p. 5; Suter, "Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke," _Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik_, Vol. X, Leipzig, 1900, p. 10, and "Nachtraege," in Vol. XIV, p. 158; Cantor, _Geschichte der Mathematik_, Vol. I, 3d ed., pp. 712-733 etc.; F. Woepcke in _Propagation_, p. 489. So recently has he become known that Heilbronner, writing in 1742, merely mentions him as "Ben-Musa, inter Arabes celebris Geometra, scripsit de figuris planis & sphericis." [_Historia matheseos universae_, Leipzig, 1742, p. 438.] In this work most of the Arabic names will be transliterated substantially as laid down by Suter in his work _Die Mathematiker_ etc., except where this violates English pronunciation. The scheme of pronunciation of oriental names is set forth in the preface. [9] Our word _algebra_ is from the title of one of his works, Al-jabr wa'l-muq[=a]balah, Completion and Comparison. The work was translated into English by F. Rosen, London, 1831, and treated in _L'Algebre d'al-Kh[=a]rizmi et les methodes indienne et grecque_, Leon Rodet, Paris, 1878, extract from the _Journal Asiatique_. For the derivation of the word _algebra_, see Cossali, _Scritti Inediti_, pp. 381-383, Rome, 1857; Leonardo's _Liber Abbaci_ (1202), p. 410, Rome, 1857; both published by B. Boncompagni. "Almuchabala" also was used as a name for algebra.