New and Free Animated Series Tells the Story of the Father of Algebra

Using up-to-the-minute technology to tell an ancient story, Spencer Striker Digital Learning recently released the first episode of Al-Khwarizmi: Father of Algebra and the Algorithm.

An Original Docudrama Series. The 30-episode, AI-animated docudrama, presented in the vertical video format made popular by TikTok, tells the story of Al-Khwarizmi, a scholar who lived in ninth-century Baghdad. Al-Khwarizmi studied and wrote at The House of Wisdom, which was one of the world’s largest public libraries at the time, as well as a gathering place for writers, translators, and scientists exploring philosophy, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy.

The series — available for free on YouTube — dramatizes the young and hungry Al-Khwarizmi’s life at the House of Wisdom, where he combined Greek geometry and Indian arithmetic to create something new: the algorithm, which was named for him. Between 813 and 833, he compiled Al-Jabr (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing), which included the first system for solving linear and quadratic equations. When the title of the book was Anglicized, Al-Khwarizmi’s system became known as Algebra, the foundational advanced mathematics taught to middle-school age students around the world.

The series was created by Spencer Striker, PhD, a professor of Digital Media Design at Northwestern University in Qatar. “Producing Al-Khwarizmi: Father of Algebra and the Algorithm is the culmination of deep research into the cultural and intellectual history of ancient Persia, combined with the prodigious talents of our creative team,” said Striker. “We are working at an exciting time, when AI film production in the hands of talented artists can create rich and beautiful work at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional filmmaking. Small, indie teams like ours can now produce original material with high production value relatively quickly and share the work with millions of people — and in our case, entirely for free.”

Al-Khwarizmi: Father of Algebra and the Algorithm was funded by the Doha Film Institute Web Series Grant and selected for the Qumra 2026 Series Lab. The first episode was published on July 15. On the date this article was published, five episodes were available on YouTube. The remainder of the series will be released daily at 10 a.m. ET throughout the summer of 2026. All 30 episodes will be available for free on YouTube.

Striker, whose work includes interactive history, mobile games, VR, and documentaries, suggested that teachers could use Al-Khwarizmi as a teaching tool to engage their students in mathematics, social studies, or world history. Upon request, he will share his production notes so that high school teachers and college professors with classes in AI animation and filmmaking can share them with their students. Find contact information on the series website.