Arabic numerals

Arabic numerals, also called Hindu–Arabic numerals,[1][2] are the

ten digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, based on the Hindu–Arabic
numeral system,[3] the most common system for the symbolic
Arabic numerals sans-serif
representation of numbers in the world today. In this numeral system,
a sequence of digits such as "975" is read as a single number, using
the position of the digit in the sequence to interpret its value. They are descended from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed
by Indian mathematiciansaround 500 CE.[3]

The system was adopted by Arabic mathematicians in Baghdad and passed on to the Arabs farther west. There is some evidence to
suggest that the numerals in their current form developed fromArabic letters in the Maghreb, the western region of theArab world.[4]
The current form of the numerals developed in North Africa, distinct in form from the Indian and Eastern Arabic numerals. It was in
the North African city of Bejaia that the Italian scholar Fibonacci first encountered the numerals; his work was crucial in making
them known throughout Europe. The use of Arabic numerals spread around the world through European trade, books and
colonialism.

The term Arabic numerals is ambiguous. It most commonly refers to the numerals widely used in Europe and the Americas; to avoid
confusion, Unicode calls these European digits. Arabic numerals is also the European name for the entire family of related numerals
of Arabic and Indian numerals. It may also be intended to mean the numerals used by Arabs, in which case it generally refers to the
Eastern Arabic numerals. It would be more appropriate to refer to the Arabic numeral system, where the value of a digit in a number
depends on its position.

Although the phrase "Arabic numeral" is frequently capitalized, it is sometimes written in lower case: for instance, in its entry in the
Oxford English Dictionary,[5] which helps to distinguish it from "Arabic numerals" as the East Arabic numerals specific to the Arabs.

Contents
History
Origins
Popular myths
Adoption in Europe
Adoption in Russia
Adoption in China
Evolution of symbols
See also
References
Sources
Further reading
External links

History

Origins
The decimal Hindu–Arabic numeral system was developed in India by around AD 700.[6] The development was gradual, spanning
several centuries, but the decisive step was probably provided by Brahmagupta's formulation of zero as a number in AD 628. The
system was revolutionary by including zero in positional notation, thereby limiting the number of individual digits to ten. It is
considered an important milestone in the development of mathematics. One may distinguish between this positional system, which is
identical throughout the family, and the precise glyphs used to write the numerals, which varied regionally
.

The glyphs most commonly used in conjunction with the Latin script since early modern times are 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. The first
universally accepted inscription containing the use of the 0 glyph in India is first recorded in the 9th century, in an inscription at
Gwalior in Central India dated to 870. Numerous Indian documents on copper plates exist, with the same symbol for zero in them,
dated back as far as the 6th century AD, but their dates are uncertain. Inscriptions in Indonesia and Cambodia dating to AD 683 have
also been found.[7]

The numeral system came to be known to the court of

Baghdad, where mathematicians such as the Persian Al-
Khwarizmi, whose book On the Calculation with Hindu
Numerals was written about 825 in Arabic, and the Arab
mathematician Al-Kindi, who wrote four volumes, On the Brahmi numerals (lower row) in India in the 1st century AD
Use of the Indian Numerals (Ketab fi Isti'mal al-'Adad al-
Hindi) about 830, propagated it in the Arab world. Their
work was principally responsible for the diffusion of the
Indian system of numeration in the Middle East and the
West.[8]
The numerals used in theBakhshali manuscript, dated to
In the 10th century, Middle-Eastern mathematicians sometime between the 3rd and 7th century AD.
extended the decimal numeral system to include fractions,
as recorded in a treatise by Syrian mathematician Abu'l-
Hasan al-Uqlidisi in 952–953. The decimal point notation was introduced by Sind
ibn Ali, who also wrote the earliest treatise on Arabic numerals.

A distinctive West Arabic variant of the symbols begins to emerge around the 10th
century in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus, called ghubar ("sand-table" or "dust-table")
numerals, which are the direct ancestor of the modern W
estern Arabic numerals used
[9]
throughout the world. Ghubar numerals themselves are probably of Roman origin.

Popular myths
Some popular myths have argued that the original forms of these symbols indicated
their numeric value through the number of angles they contained, but no evidence Modern-day Arab telephone keypad
exists of any such origin.[10] with two forms of Arabic numerals:
Western Arabic/European numerals
on the left and Eastern Arabic
Adoption in Europe numerals on the right

In 825 Al-Khwārizmī wrote a treatise in Arabic, On the Calculation with Hindu

Numerals,[11] which survives only as the 12th-century Latin translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum.[12][13] Algoritmi, the
translator's rendition of the author's name, gave rise to the wordalgorithm.[14]

est are found in the Codex Vigilanus of 976.[15]

The first mentions of the numerals in the W

From the 980s, Gerbert of Aurillac (later, Pope Sylvester II) used his position to spread knowledge of the numerals in Europe.
Gerbert studied in Barcelona in his youth. He was known to have requested mathematical treatises concerning the astrolabe from
Lupitus of Barcelona after he had returned to France.
Leonardo Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa), a mathematician born in the Republic of
Pisa who had studied in Béjaïa (Bougie), Algeria, promoted the Indian numeral
system in Europe with his 1202 bookLiber Abaci:

When my father, who had been appointed by his country as public

notary in the customs at Bugia acting for the Pisan merchants going
there, was in charge, he summoned me to him while I was still a
child, and having an eye to usefulness and future convenience,
desired me to stay there and receive instruction in the school of
accounting. There, when I had been introduced to the art of the
Indians' nine symbols through remarkable teaching, knowledge of Adoption of the Hindu numerals
the art very soon pleased me above all else and I came to understand through the Arabs by Europe
it.

The numerals are arranged with their lowest value digit to the right, with higher
value positions added to the left. This arrangement was adopted identically into the
numerals as used in Europe. Languages written in the Latin alphabet run from left-
to-right, unlike languages written in the Arabic alphabet. Hence, from the point of
view of the reader, numerals in Western texts are written with the highest power of Woodcut showing the 16th century
the base first whereas numerals in Arabic texts are written with the lowest power of astronomical clock of Uppsala
the base first. Cathedral, with two clockfaces, one
with Arabic and one with Roman
The reason the digits are more commonly known as "Arabic numerals" in Europe numerals.
and the Americas is that they were introduced to Europe in the 10th century by
Arabic-speakers of North Africa, who were then using the digits from Libya to
Morocco. Arabs, on the other hand, call the system "Hindu numerals",[16][17]
referring to their origin in India. This is not to be confused with what the Arabs call
the "Hindi numerals", namely theEastern Arabic numerals(٠ - ١ - ٢ - ٣ -٤ - ٥ - ٦ - ٧
- ٨ - ٩) used in the Middle East, or any of the numerals currently used in Indian
languages (e.g. Devanagari: ०.१.२.३.४.५.६.७.८.९).[10]

The European acceptance of the numerals was accelerated by the invention of the
printing press, and they became widely known during the 15th century. Early
evidence of their use in Britain includes: an equal hour horary quadrant from
1396,[18] in England, a 1445 inscription on the tower of Heathfield Church, Sussex;
a 1448 inscription on a wooden lych-gate of Bray Church, Berkshire; and a 1487
inscription on the belfry door at Piddletrenthide church, Dorset; and in Scotland a
1470 inscription on the tomb of the first Earl of Huntly in Elgin Cathedral. (See G.F.
Hill, The Development of Arabic Numerals in Europe for more examples.) In central
Europe, the King of Hungary Ladislaus the Posthumous, started the use of Arabic
numerals, which appear for the first time in a royal document of 1456.[19] By the
mid-16th century, they were in common use in most of Europe.[20] Roman numerals A German manuscript page teaching
remained in use mostly for the notation of Anno Domini years, and for numbers on use of Arabic numerals (Talhoffer
Thott, 1459). At this time, knowledge
clockfaces.
of the numerals was still widely seen
Today, Roman numerals are still used for enumeration of lists (as an alternative to as esoteric, and Talhoffer presents
them with the Hebrew alphabet and
alphabetical enumeration), for sequential volumes, to differentiate monarchs or
astrology.
family members with the same first names, and (in lower case) to number pages in
prefatory material in books.
Adoption in Russia
Cyrillic numerals were a numbering system derived from the Cyrillic alphabet, used
by South and East Slavic peoples. The system was used in Russia as late as the early
18th century when Peter the Great replaced it with Arabic numerals.

Adoption in China
Arabic numerals were introduced to China during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) by
the Muslim Hui people. In the early 17th century, European-style Arabic numerals
[21][22][23]
were introduced by Spanish and Portuguese Jesuits.

Evolution of symbols Late 18th-century French

revolutionary "decimal" clockface.
The numeral system employed, known as algorism, is positional decimal notation.
Various symbol sets are used to represent numbers in the Hindu–Arabic numeral
system, potentially including both symbols that evolved from the Brahmi numerals,
and symbols that developed independently. The symbols used to represent the
system have split into various typographical variants since theMiddle Ages:

The widespread Western Arabic numerals used with the Latin script, in
the table below labelledEuropean, descended from the West Arabic
numerals developed inal-Andalus (Andalucía, Spain) and the Maghreb.
Spanish scholars, because of the geographic proximity , trade, and
constant warfare with the Muslim kingdoms of Southern Spain, saw a
potential in the simplicity of Arabic numbers, and decided to adopt those
symbols, and later other Europeans followed suit. There are two
typographic styles for rendering European numerals, known aslining
figures and text figures. Iron plate with an order 6magic
The Arabic–Indic or Eastern Arabic numerals, used with the Arabic square in Persian/ Arabic numbers
script, developed primarily in what is nowIraq. A variant of the Eastern from China, dating to theYuan
Arabic numerals used in the Persian and Urdu languages is shown
below as East Arabic-Indic. Dynasty (1271–1368).
The Devanagari numerals used with Devanagari and related variants
are grouped as Indian numerals.
The evolution of the numerals in early Europe is shown here in a table created by the French scholar Jean-Étienne Montucla in his
Histoire de la Mathematique, which was published in 1757:
The Arabic numeral glyphs 0–9 are encoded in ASCII and Unicode at positions 0x30 to 0x39, matching up with the second
hexadecimal digit for convenience:

Binary Octal Decimal Hexadecimal Glyph

0011 0000 060 48 30 0
0011 0001 061 49 31 1
0011 0010 062 50 32 2
0011 0011 063 51 33 3
0011 0100 064 52 34 4
0011 0101 065 53 35 5
0011 0110 066 54 36 6
0011 0111 067 55 37 7
0011 1000 070 56 38 8
0011 1001 071 57 39 9

See also
Abjad numerals Greek numerals
Chinese numerals Japanese numerals
Counting rods – decimal positional numeral system Maya numerals
with zero Regional variations in modern handwritten Arabic
Decimal numerals

References
1. Schipp, Bernhard; Krämer, Walter (2008), Statistical Inference, Econometric Analysis and Matrix Algebra: Festschrift
in Honour of Götz Trenkler (https://books.google.com/?id=t6XfLJzqO_kC&pg=P A387), Springer, p. 387,
ISBN 9783790821208
2. Lumpkin, Beatrice; Strong, Dorothy (1995),Multicultural science and math connections: middle school projects and
activities (https://books.google.com/?id=2LgG8lsJQmAC&pg=P A118), Walch Publishing, p. 118,
ISBN 9780825126598
3. Bulliet, Richard; Crossley, Pamela; Headrick,, Daniel; Hirsch, Steven; Johnson, Lyman (2010). The Earth and Its
Peoples: A Global History, Volume 1 (https://books.google.com/books?id=dOxl71w-jHEC&pg=P A192). Cengage
Learning. p. 192. ISBN 1439084742. "Indian mathematicians invented the concept of zero and developed the
"Arabic" numerals and system of place-value notation used in most parts of the world today"
4. On the Origin of Arabic Numerals(http://xxx.lanl.gov/ftp/math/papers/0304/0304219.pdf)- A. Boucenna - Université
Ferhat Abbas Setif (in French)
5. "Arabic", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition
6. O'Connor, J. J. and E. F. Robertson. 2000. Indian Numerals (http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistT
opics/Ind
ian_numerals.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of
St. Andrews, Scotland.
7. Plofker 2009, p. 45.
8. The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive(http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/%7Ehistory/HistT
opics/Indian_numer
als.html)
9. Gandz, Solomon (November 1931), "The Origin of the Ghubār Numerals, or the Arabian Abacus and the Articuli",
Isis, 16 (2): 393–424, doi:10.1086/346615 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F346615), JSTOR 224714 (https://www.jstor.or
g/stable/224714)
10. Ifrah, Georges (1998).The universal history of numbers: from prehistory to the invention of the computer; translated
from the French by David Bellos. London: Harvill Press. pp. 356–357.ISBN 9781860463242.
11. Philosophy Of Mathematics(https://books.google.com/books?id=DuyMjOwWWnUC&pg=P
A38) Francis, John –
2008 – Page 38
12. The Ellipse: A Historical and Mathematical Journey(https://books.google.com/books?id=twWkDe1Y9YQC&pg=PT9
9) Arthur Mazer – 2011
13. "al-Khwarizmi - Muslim mathematician"(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/317171/al-Khwarizmi).
14. Models of Computation: An Introduction to Computability Theory – Page 1
(https://books.google.com/books?id=FPF
snzzebhQC&pg=PA1) Maribel Fernández – 2009
15. "MATHORIGINS.COM_V" (http://www.mathorigins.com/V.htm). www.mathorigins.com.
16. Rowlett, Russ (4 July 2004),Roman and "Arabic" Numerals(http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/roman.html),
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, retrieved 22 June 2009
17. Achenbach, Joel (16 September 1994),Article: Take a Number, Please. (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-909875.
html), The Washington Post, retrieved 22 June 2009
18. "14th century timepiece unearthed in Qld farm shed"(http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-09/one-man27s-trash-is-
another27s-centuries-old-treasure/3654974). ABC News.
19. Erdélyi: Magyar művelődéstörténet 1-2. kötet. Kolozsvár
, 1913, 1918
20. Mathforum.org (http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52545.html)
21. Helaine Selin, ed. (31 July 1997). Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology
, and medicine in non-western
cultures (https://books.google.com/books?id=raKRY3KQspsC&pg=PA198). Springer. pp. 198–. ISBN 978-0-7923-
4066-9. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
22. Meuleman, Johan H. (23 August 2002).Islam in the era of globalization: Muslim attitudes towards modernity and
identity (https://books.google.com/books?id=YNArhqy4emwC&pg=P A272). Psychology Press. p. 272.ISBN 978-0-
7007-1691-3. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
23. Peng Yoke Ho (16 October 2000).Li, Qi and Shu: An Introduction to Science and Civilization in China(https://books.
google.com/books?id=_P6C4JO4JCUC&pg=P A106). Courier Dover Publications. p. 106.ISBN 978-0-486-41445-4.
Retrieved 3 March 2012.

Sources
Plofker, Kim (2009), Mathematics in India, Princeton University Pres,ISBN 978-0-691-12067-6

Further reading
Ore, Oystein (1988), "Hindu-Arabic numerals",Number Theory and Its History, Dover, pp. 19–24, ISBN 0486656209.
Burnett, Charles (2006), "The Semantics of Indian Numerals in Arabic, Greek and Latin",
Journal of Indian
Philosophy, Springer-Netherlands,34 (1–2): 15–30, doi:10.1007/s10781-005-8153-z.
Encyclopædia Britannica (Kim Plofker) (2007), "mathematics, South Asian", Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 189
(4761): 1–12, Bibcode:1961Natur.189S.273., doi:10.1038/189273c0, retrieved 18 May 2007.
Hayashi, Takao (1995), The Bakhshali Manuscript, An ancient Indian mathematical treatise, Groningen: Egbert
Forsten, ISBN 906980087X.
Ifrah, Georges (2000), A Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to Computers, New York: Wiley,
ASIN 0471393401, ISBN 0471393401 .
Katz, Victor J. (ed.) (20 July 2007),The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A
Sourcebook, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,ISBN 0691114854 .

External links
Development of Hindu Arabic and Traditional Chinese Arithmetic
History of Counting Systems and Numerals. Retrieved 11 December 2005.
The Evolution of Numbers. 16 April 2005.
O'Connor, J. J. and Robertson, E. F. Indian numerals. November 2000.
History of the numerals

Arabic numerals
Hindu-Arabic numerals
 Numeral & Numbers' history and curiosities
Gerbert d'Aurillac's early use of Hindu-Arabic numeralsat Convergence

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