Talk:History of algebra

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[edit] Omar Khayyam and algebraic geometry

I have removed the sentence:

Another Persian mathematician, Omar Khayyam, developed algebraic geometry[citation needed].

Since it is not sourced and also because there is evidence to the contrary:

Boyer, Carl B. (1991). "The Arabic Hegemony", A History of Mathematics, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 241-242. ISBN 0471543977. “One of the most fruitful contributions of Arabic eclecticism was the tendency to close the gap between numerical and geometric algebra. The decisive step in this direction came much later with Descartes, but Omar Khayyam was moving in this direction when he wrote, "Whoever thinks algebra is a trick in obtaining unknowns has thought it in vain. No attention should be paid to the fact that algebra and geometry are different in appearance. Algebras are geometric facts which are proved."” 

So although Omar Khayyam was moving in the right direction he did not actually get to the destination and so he did not "create" algebraic geometry. selfworm 23:30, 20 February 2007 (UTC)