Al-Khwarizmi, also known as, Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was born in Baghdad, ca 780 AD, a city now in Iraq, around 780 and died around 850. Although there is little information on the life of Al-Khwarizmi, what we do know is rather profound. He is known today as the "father of algebra". Diophantus was also given this title, but Al-Khwarizmi was more often thought of as the father of algebra because he was the first to teach algebra in such an elementary way. Diophantus, knowing many of things Al-Khwarizmi knew, but instead of focusing on the algebraic techniques, he was more interested in number theory.  He died around 850 AD.