Algebra is a tried and tested branch of mathematics, with its roots set as early in the timelines of human civilizations as 820 A.D. This branch deals with the studies of structures, relationships between variables and manipulations of quantity. What started as elementary mathematical manipulation in the earlier times has grown over time into a full fledged branch of mathematics that comprises a major part of the mathematical curriculum in schools, colleges and universities across the world. Many sciences depend on algebra for the derivation of important formulae. Elementary algebra has laid the foundations of the modern algebra that most of the present generation has grown up learning.
Some well renowned historians have contested that the ancient Babylonian priests were the originators of the mathematics of solving for operands of equations, as they are known by in the present times. The idea is that such mathematical treatments were a part of the mathematical research and knowledge body expansion happening at the time of the Babylonian civilization. This leads one into believing that the whole concept of algebra might be as old as 4000 years!
More concrete research throws light on the fact that the word algebra derives from the Arabic word Al-Jabr. Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khowarizmi, a noted Arab mathematician put together a great piece of mathematical literature around the year 820 and named it Hidab al-jabr wal-muqubala. The title when translated means ‘The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.’ This treatise proposed and explained a systematic procedure to solve linear and quadratic equations, and the tools to do so were al-jabr and muqubala. Al –Khowarizmi used transposition of terms with a subtraction sign to the other side of the equation, and this was referred to as al-jabr. Also, the cancellation of like terms on the two sides of the ‘equal to’ sign of the equation played a major role in the solution of the linear and quadratic equations; and this was termed muqubala. As a matter of fact, there are several references to the title of the book as being ‘the science of transposition and cancellation’, ‘the Book of Completion and Cancellation’ and ‘the book of Restoration and Balancing.’ This cements the idea of transposing and cancelling out as the basis of solving linear and quadratic equations. ‘Al-jabr’ has undergone a change of form over the years, and the science has been popularized with the name of algebra.