This is the page I tried to edit but was unsuccesful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics
specifically, the “History” subsection.
here’s what I have written:
From the ninth century to the fifteenth century, scholars and scientists from various parts of the vast Islamic Empire contributed extensively to various fields such as mathematics, astronomy, geography, chemistry, medicine, and pharmacology, among others(3). During this period, a so called “Islamic Golden age”—similar to the European Renaissance—was concurrent to the supposed “Dark Ages” of Europe(3).
During this Golden Age Muslims were motivated and inspired by Islam to understand the world better, as doing so was deemed a form of worship to Allah(3). Consequently, the sole reason behind focus of Muslims to understand mathematics and astronomy, for instance, was not merely for religious purposes (e.g. determining time of daily prayer, determining location of Ka’ba)(3).
In the field of mathematics, Muslims were influenced greatly by the works of the Greeks and the Indians (4). Perhaps the most important contribution to mathematics was the Indian place-value system, which was first introduced by Al-Khwarizmi (4). This is the numerical system used in the Western world today, mistakenly referred to as the “Arabic Numerals”(2). In addition, the development of the decimal system currently used by Al-Uqlidisic changed the world of mathematics dramatically.
The Muslims spent a considerable amount of time and effort translating the work of ancient Greeks, such as Euclid, Archimedes, Diphantus, Nicomachus, Appolonius and various other Greek thinkers in other fields than mathematics (4). With the completion of translation of Greek works by the 9th century, the field of mathematics reached a peak between the 10th and 12th centuries(4).
Muslim scientists expanded on arithmetic and geometric knowledge inherited from the Greeks. For instance, Kashi used the principles used to find the square and cube roots of a number to find the 5th root of a number as large as 4424089450688. In geometry, for example, muslim’s expanded Euclid’s rule for constructing a pentagon and expanded it to construction of any polygon.
In addition, Khwarizmi made a substantial contribution to the field of mathematics by publishing a book on algebra, wherein he provides a formula for solving all types of linear and quadratic equations(2). When translated nearly 300 years later into Latin, Europe had been introduced to a concept they had never known about (3). Moreover, Thabit ibn Qurra utilized algebra and geometry to explain geometric equations geometrically (1).
Muslims expanded and developed various fields, such as mathematics, by applying principles from one field to another. In mathematics, the cross-application of geometry, algebra, and arithmetic resulted in vast contributions to this field (2).
For instance, through mixing geometry and algebra, Umar Khayyam was able to solve equations whose root was not known algebraically using geometry (2). Moreover, one important contribution from Khayyam, namely the use of auxiliary curves and geometric shapes to solve third degree equations, is mistakenly attributed to Rene Descarts (2). Another similar misattribution is that of attributing the work of A-TTusi to use the concept of derivative to demonstrate the value of an unknown whose cubic function is a maximum to another French Mathematician, Francois Viete (2).
Islamic scientists influenced mathematics greatly, which likely helped the Europeans in their Renaissance (1).
References
(1) Al-Daffa’, A. A. (1977). The Muslim contribution to mathematics. N.J.: Humanities Press.
(2) Dallal, A. (1999). Science, medicine, and technology. In J.L. Esposito (Ed) Oxford history of Islam (pp. 155-215). NY: Oxford University Press.
(3) Iqbal, M. (2007). Science and Islam. Connecticut, Greenwood Press.
(4) Sesiano, J. (2000). Islamic mathematics. In H. Selin & U. D’Ambrosio (Eds) Mathematics across cultures: The history of non-Western mathematics (pp. 137-165). GB: Kluwer Academic Publishers.