Talk:Al-Jabr

message: The explanation of the al-Jabr operation cannot be correct:
The al-Jabr operation is subtracting a quantity from one side of the equation and adding it to another.
Applying this to:
a = b + c
gives:
a + b = c
Which is clearly inconsistent. Someone with more expertise on this book needs to substitute the correct definition of what the al-Jabr operation was. Furby100 22:07, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed some time ago. Mukadderat 23:53, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: al-Jabr

message: Does anyone know whether al-Khwarismi had any consideration of "unsolvable" cases like x^2 + 4 = 0 , not covered by the 6 solvable cases? Mukadderat 23:53, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Unsolvable cases

message: Before I give some brief comments on this article, I want to say that the errors are not those of the author, but of the secondary sources he/she used.
This article has many errors.  The first is that "al-mukhtasar" in the title of al-Khwarizmi's book does not mean "compendious", but is better translated as "condensed", "brief", or "abridged".  Also, "al-jabr wa'l-muqabala" was the medieval name for the art of algebra, so the title is better rendered "The condensed book on algebra".
:That is exactly what "compendious" means, though in modern times it is often confused for a synonym of "encyclopaedic". Hv (talk) 01:52, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I could not find the article at the link, and Googling only showed links to pay $34 to see the article. Nicknicknickandnick (talk) 09:14, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The article seems to be . The website seems to say it is now openly available. 130.243.83.87 (talk) 18:06, 13 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Title, al-jabr, al-muqabala 

message: The Arabic word al-jabr is said in the article to be the operation of "moving a negative quantity from one side of the equation to the other side and changing its sign."
Negative numbers were not acknowledged by medieval mathematicians.  In an expression like "ten less a thing" (10 - x), both the "ten" and the "thing" were positive quantities, the latter subtracted from the smaller.  The whole expression was considered to be a deficient 10 (since a "thing" has been removed from it).  In an equation, one "restores" (al-jabr means "restoration") the ten, and adds the "thing" to the other side of the equation to maintain equality.  The word "al-jabr" was also used in Arabic mathematics outside the context of algebra to "restore" deficient quantities.
See my article (with Haitham Alkhateeb) "Simplifying equations in Arabic algebra", Historia Mathematica 34 (2007), 45-61.Jeff Oaks (talk) 19:53, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: All of you (f.ex. User:MarkieAA above) who refer to proprietary articles: we are the poor ones giving away articles for free, and some of us don't have access to those articles, neither the economical means to get it. If you want to advertize your articles, why don't you do it by improving Wikipedia's article yourself? It would be a nice gesture of goodwill. ... said: Rursus (bork²) 10:49, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

text: I've tried to fix this up a bit, based on Katz, and a bit on the above. However, I'm not sure how discussing "10 - x" fits with Katz assertion that all coefficients had to be positive William M. Connolley (talk) 21:25, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Negative quantities 

message: I agree with Jeff Oaks above that this is a very poor title.  Is Compendious Book even good writing?  We would normally say Compendium in modern English for such cases.  WP:COMMONNAME would suggest that the title should be Al-jabr. SpinningSpark 12:05, 22 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Title 

message: How many pages did it originally run? -- Beland (talk) 00:16, 23 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Length 

message: :The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
The result of the move request was: moved. I am willing to reconsider per WP:RMCI  if presented with evidence that this book is not the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for Al-Jabr. (non-admin closure) Rotideypoc41352 (talk · contribs) 11:19, 2 November 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing →  – WP:COMMONNAME, instead of an exceedingly clunky full calque, see the historical talk page discussion Remsense聊 10:30, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

text: Support: Yes, it's pretty clunky, and frankly no more natural/recognisable than the Arabic name, which is at least concise and has the merit of sounding like Algebra, which is vaguely instructive. Also per Ngrams. Iskandar323 (talk) 10:54, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Iskandar323, much closer than i assumed, i confess! how much do you think the Wikipedia article affects this? — Remsense聊 11:46, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Given the dates involved, and the take-off of the Ngrams numbers specifically in 2005, when this article was created, I would say a lot. But I think the WP:CONCISE argument is the main course here. Iskandar323 (talk) 12:12, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

text: Is not the main application of "Al-Jabr". At least in Persian, there exists many books entitled "Jabr", written by other authors. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 12:01, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: What's the most famous book, and what are its English-language results? Iskandar323 (talk) 12:40, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: @Iskandar323 The name of book is not complete, it is too abstract. I propose to move article title to "Al-Jabr wal-Muqābalah". Both parts, the part "Jabe" and part "Muqābalah" should be mentioned. Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 12:54, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: @Iskandar323 Even in Arabic الجبر is ambiguous. It does not refer to الجبر و المقابله book uniquely. In English "Al-Jabr" is small enough but is ambiguous too. This trade-off (small-ambiguous) is not good! Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 13:30, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: It doesn't really matter what it means in Persian or Arabic - we are concerned here with what it means in English - are there other routinely called "Al-Jabr" in English-language texts? It is often referred to as just "Al-Jabr" in scholarly texts, , but I am ready to be convinced that there are other competing meanings, or that there may be different combinations of different parts of the Arabic name that way work better. Iskandar323 (talk) 17:35, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

text: I would say Capital or Analects are equally vague titles, but they do just fine. Remsense聊 17:36, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

text: Notified  WikiProject Books,  WikiProject Arab world, and  WikiProject History of Science. — Remsense聊 20:50, 28 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Requested move 25 October 2023