The major development of this topic was done in the ninth century by Arab mathematicians. In particular Al-Khwarzmi's book entitled "compendium on a  calculation by completing and balancing" was and significant event in the history of mathematics. So he is considered as the father of algebra.

In the sixth and seventh centuries, Indian mathematicians Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta have worked on the topics linear equations and quadratic equations and general method of solving.

In the 19th century British mathematicians took great effort on  developing this topic. The Peacock was the founder of axiomatic thinking in arithmetic. He is called as Euclid of algebra.