Name and epithets: Al-Khwarizmi’s full name has been given as Abu J‘afar or Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. The last part of his name is generally taken to be where he was from, the region of Khwarizm. Al-Khwarizmi is also known by his two epithets: al-Majusi and al-Qutrubbulli. The first epithet, al-Majusi meaning “the magician” or “the priest of the Zoroastrian religion,” indicates that his Persian ancestors and parents’ were adherents of the Zoroastrianism founded by the old Persian prophet Zoroaster. The second epithet, al-Qutrubbulli, refers to a viticulture district of Baghdad by the name of Qutrubbull which was famous for its wines, touring minstrels, and carpe diem atmosphere. It is presumed that al-Khwarizmi used to live there for some time. Birth and death: Al-Khwarizmi was born around 783 CE probably in the city of Kath in the region of Khwarizm in the Greater Khurasan which then occupied the eastern part of the Greater Iran. He died around 850 CE in Baghdad after having served three Muslim Caliphs: al-Ma‘mun (813-833), Al-Mu‘tasim (833-842) and Al-Wathiq (842-847). Education: Only few details of al-Khwarizmi’s life are known with certainty. What is sure is that he must have studied mathematics and astronomy vigorously when he was an adolescent, since as a young man he was already an accomplished mathematician and astronomer. In the course of his academic training, he must also have made the acquaintance of scientific manuscripts which were written in Pahlavi and Sanskrit.

Prof. Nasser Kanani, born and grown up in Tehran, completed his studies of materials science at the Montanistic University Leoben in Austria and the Technical University of Berlin. His M.Sc. thesis resulted in a patent granted for a new method of producing high-grade steel by means of electric arc furnace. He obtained his Ph.D. in solid state physics and his highest academic qualification, “venia legendi,” in electrochemistry from the Technical University of Berlin. Prof. Kanani was invited to teach and conduct research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and at the Sakarya University in Turkey. In 1985, he took charge of the department of R&D of a French company based in Berlin and held this appointment for a period of twenty years alongside his teaching and research activities at the Technical University of Berlin. Prof. Kanani has authored 200 scientific papers and has written six textbooks on materials science and electroplating in English and German. In connection with the history of science and art in Iran, he has published a book in English entitled “The Parthian Battery,” a book in German on “Traditional Persian Art Music,” and a book in Persian about the Persian mathematician al-Kharazmi whose name has become known worldwide as “Algorithm.” His latest book, entitled “Hafez and His Poetry as Viewed by the West,” was published in 2016 in Germany. Prof. Kanani has been honored with a multitude of awards inside and outside Iran for his scientific and cultural achievements. Among others, his name is mentioned in the “Calendar of German Scholars” and in the “First Calendar of European Scholars.” He is the winner of the “Multicultural Prize for Sophisticated Scientific and Cultural Achievements” and the “International Award for Excellence in Culture, Literature and Art.” Commencing from 2008, every two years the “Prof. Kanani Prize” is awarded in Iran to six young Iranian scientists who have succeeded in achieving remarkable results in the field of electroplating and environment protection.