SCIENTIFIC PILGRIMAGE TO AL-KHWARIZMI’S BIRTHPLACE
Donald Knuth about Scientific Pilgrimage held in 1979:
Symposium on "Algorithms in Modern Mathematics and its Application":
In 1978 Donald Erwin Knuth and Andrei Petrovich Ershov came to idea to organize symposium to discuss problems connected with the notion of an algorithm in birthplace of al-Khwarizmi. In autumn 1978 they sent a joint letter to 40 colleagues from 11 countries saying:
"Some time ago a group of mathematicians and computer scientists (including the authors of this letter) thought of making a scientific pilgrimage to the birthplace of al-Khwarizmi, the outstanding medieval mathematician who gave his name to the word "algorithm". As his name indicates al-Khwarizmi was from Khorezm oasis, a celebrated center of civilization that has given mankind a whole constellation of remarkable philosophers, scientists, and poets. We had learned not only that al-Khwarizmi's famous writings eventually led to our word "algorithm", but that the word "algebra" also stems from the title of his major work. So we felt that a visit to this site would be a special experience for every mathematician we prefer to have mutual discussions about fundamental problems of mathematics and computer science. We believe that the desert setting and the atmosphere of history that pervades the conference site will provide us with a special opportunity to take our minds away from the everyday work that fills our lives at home; it should help inspire us to thoughts of a more penetrating, far-sighted and philosophical nature. Nevertheless, we don't believe that the work of the symposium will succeed if people come completely unprepared, expecting an entirely spontaneous discussion; some serious preliminary study will enable us to work better and to learn better during the time we are together. The attendees will no doubts be specialists in a variety of disciplines with a variety of different modes of thinking, and we certainly don't expect that a sudden unifying consensus of opinion will be reached about the intrinsic nature of algorithms; yet we do feel that the symposium will be an important experience leading to future progress."
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| Donald Erwin Knuth and Andrei Ershov, Urgench, Uzbekistan | Andrei Ershov with colleagues at the cotton harvest, Urgench, Uzbekistan |
As a result, the symposium "Algorithms In Modern Mathematics And Its Applications" took place in Urgench in September 16 - 22, 1979. Thirteen foreign and 26 soviet scientists participated the Symposium. In the very day of the Symposium's opening the al-Khwarizmi monument-laying ceremony took place.
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| Monument to al-Khwarizmi in Urgench, Uzbekistan |
Ample time was devoted to al-Khwarizmi’s life. Heinz Zemanek, the Vienna based designer of the Mailufterl computer, gave a full lecture about al-Khwarizmi’s times, life, and works and even proposed to vote on the year of his birth: “It is generally assumed that he was born around 780. We could take a vote that it was in 779 and celebrate his 1200th birthday today.”
With a selection of the world’s leading computer scientists present in Urgench, the conference was the epitome of celebrating the heritage of al-Khwarizmi and constructing the algorithm genealogy of computer science.
Proceeding of Symposium on "Algorithms in Modern Mathematics and its Application" was published by Springer under title "Algorithms in Modern Mathematics and Computer Science" in 1981.
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| Proceedings: "Algorithms in Modern Mathematics and Computer Science", Donal Knuth, Andrei Ershov, Springer, 1981 |
Heinz Zemanek in his manuscript "DIXIT Algorizmi - His Background, his Personality, his Work, and his Influence" presented at symposium concludes with followings:
"In his ALGEBRA and ARITHMETIC and wherever else it appeared practical, e.g. in calendar calculations, al-Khorezmi expressed the concept and methodology of the algorithm in an extraordinarily clear language. His style, as is true of most of ancient mathematics, is a digital style, a computer-oriented style in the sense that the processing is restricted to digital expressions and numbers: rather than getting involved in operations with complicated fractions, values are transformed into minutes, seconds, terces, etc., as if a device with stones or pins or impulses had to be operated.al-Khorezmi's work is the beginning of a practical mathematical abstraction, of an abstraction very different from the Greek philosophy which remained intensively connected to the real, sensual nature, while al-Khorezmi's abstractions are as operational and goal-oriented as the abstractions which are used for and are running the computers of our century."
The 2ND Scientific Pilgrimage:
After 40 years, we plan to organize in the framework of the AICT2020 the 2nd Scientific Pilgrimage to the birthplace of al-Khwarizmi to celebrate the 1,200 years of al-Khwarizmi becoming the head of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad (scientific research and teaching center). Every computer scientist to whom the word "Algorithm" makes great sense is welcome to join us during this Scientific Pilgrimage that will be complemented with a Summer School and Workshop for local university students and conference participants in Khiva/Urgench on 05-06 October, 2020.References:
- Heinz Zemanek, DIXIT Algorizmi - His Background, his Personality, his Work, and his Influence, in Andrei P. Ershov, Donald E. Knuth, (Eds.), Algorithms in Modern Mathematics and Computer Science, Proceedings, Urgench, Uzbek SSR, September 16-22, 1979. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, No. 122, Springer, 1981, ISBN 3-540-1! 157-3
- Zemanek, Heinz, "Al-Khorezmi Anniversary in Turkestan," Ann. Hist. Comp., Vol. 6, No. 3, July 1984, pp. 314-315.
- Algorithms in Modern Mathematics and Computer Science - Proceedings, Urgench, Uzbek SSR, September 16-22, 1979, Springer
- V. Uspensky and A. Semenov, Algorithms: Main Ideas and Applications. Springer Netherlands, 1993, doi:10.1007/978-94-015-8232-2
- Academician A. Ershov's Archive, International Symposium "Algorithms in Modern Mathematics and Computer Science"