This text offers a special account of Indian work in diophantine equations during the 6th through 12th centuries and Italian work on solutions of cubic and biquadratic equations from the 11th through 16th centuries. The volume traces the historical development of algebra and the theory of equations from ancient times to the beginning of modern algebra, outlining some modern themes such as the fundamental theorem of algebra, Clifford algebras, and quarternions. It is geared toward undergraduates who have no background in calculus. For other wonderful titles written by this author see: ""Euler through Time: A New Look at Old Themes"", ""Supersymmetry for Mathematicians: An Introduction"", ""The Mathematical Legacy of Harish-Chandra: A Celebration of Representation Theory and Harmonic Analysis"", and ""The Selected Works of V.S. Varadarajan"".