TRACT S3.

HISTORY OF ALGEBRA.

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Indians,, as well as the arithmetical method of computing byten characters, or digits ; but the Arabians themselves say itwas invented among them by one Mahomet ben Musa, orson of Moses, who it seems flourished about the 8th or 9thcentury. It is more probable, however, that Mahomet wasnot the inventor, but only a person well skilled in the art;and it is further probable, that the Arabians drew theirfirst knowledge of it, either from the Indians, or from Dio-phantus and other Greek writers, as they did that of geo-metry and other sciences, which they improved and trans-lated into their own language; and from them it was thatEurope received these sciences, before the Greek authorswere known to us, after the Moors settled in Spain, and afterthe Europeans began to hold communication with them, andbegan to travel among them to learn the sciences. And accord-ing to the testimony of Abulpharagius, in the year 969, thearithmetic of Diophantus had been translated into Arabic byMahomet ben-yahyaBuziani. But whoever werethe inventorsand first cultivators of algebra, it is certain that the Europeansfirst received the knowledge, as well as the name, from theArabians or Moors, in consequence of the close intercoursewhich subsisted between them for several centuries. And itappears that the art was pretty generally known, and muchcultivated, at least in Italy, if not in Spain, as well as otherparts of Europe also, long before the invention of printing,as many writers upon the art are still extant in the librariesof manuscripts; and the first authors, presently after theinvention of printing, speak of many former writers on thissubject, from whom they learned the art,

OF THE INDIAN ALGEBRA.

Some notices have lately been obtained of the science ofalgebra among the Indians ; and it is very probable that,through the intercourse of learned Englishmen with thatcountry, we shall receive still more considerable informationon that head. ^