The Hindu-Arabic Numerals

n era was about the same as the number of written languages, and in some cases a single language had several systems. The Egyptians, for example, had three systems of wri

ll commonly call Arabic, as only one of many systems in use just before the Christian era. As it then existed the system was no better than many others, it was of late origin, it contained no zero, it was cumbersome and little used, and it had no particular promise. Not until centu

fic value. In Europe the invention of notation was generally assigned to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean until the critical p

tearme it, and so doo they reade. And that may appeare in all Hebrewe, Chaldaye and Arabike bookes ... where as the Greekes, Latines, and all nations of Europe, do wryte and reade from the lefte hand towarde the ryghte."[3] Others, and among them such influential writers as Tartaglia[4] in Italy and K?bel[5] in Germany, asserted the Arabic origin of the numerals, while still others left the matter undecided[6] or simply dismissed them as "barbaric."[7] Of course the Arabs themselves never laid claim to the invention, always recognizing their indebtedness to the Hindus both for the numeral forms and for the distinguishing feature of place value. Foremost among these writers was the great master of the golden age of Bagdad, one of the first of the Arab writers to collect the mathematical cla

ersed in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Hebrew, and Syriac, as well as in astronomy, chronology, and mathematics. In his work on India he gives detailed information concerning the language and customs of the people of that country, and states explicitly[17] that the Hindus of his time did not use the letters of their alphabet for numerical notation, as the Arabs did. He also states that the numeral signs called a?ka[18] had different shapes in various parts of I

large number asserted by the people of India to represent the duration of the world. Huart feels positive that in Mo?ahhar's time the present Arabic symbols had not yet come into use, and that the Indian

ning fund of information. He states[22] that the wise men of India, assembled by the king, composed the Sindhind. Further on[23] he states, upon the authority of the historian Mo?ammed ibn 'Alī 'Abdī, that by order of Al-Man?ūr many works of science and astrology were translated into Arabic, notably the Sindhind (Siddhānta). Concerning the meaning and spelling of this name there is considerable diversity of opinion. Colebrooke[24] first pointed out the connection

e. He mentions also Al-Khowārazmī and ?abash[33] as translators of the tables of the Sindhind. Al-Bīrūnī[34] refers to two other translations from a work fur

.D., by Ibn Abī Ya'qūb al-Nadīm. It is of fundamental importance for the history of Arabic culture. Of the ten chief divisions of the work

to Islam under the caliph Al-Māmūn, is also given as the author of a work on the Hindu method of reckoning. Nevertheless, there is a possibility[36] that some of the works ascribed to Sened ibn 'Alī are real

ar treatises by other writers are mentioned. We are therefore forced to the conclusion that th

rope, wrote his Liber Abbaci[38] in 1202. In this work he refers frequently to the nine Indian figures,[39]

es on algorism is a commentary[40] on a set of verses called the Carmen de Algorismo, written by Alexander de Vill

' ars p'sens

ruim bis quinq

the Craft of Nombryng, the quych crafte is called also Algorym. Ther was a kyng of Inde the q