digits

[Qcumber]

Do you know when the Indian digits called "Arabic numerals" (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0)in the West where borrowed by the Arabs?

[Psi-Lord]

This is what the Wikipedia says:

How the numbers came to the Arabs can be read in the work of al-Qifti's "Chronology of the scholars", which was written around the end the 12th century but quoted earlier sources(see [1]):-

... a person from India presented himself before the Caliph al-Mansur in the year 776 CE who was well versed in the siddhanta method of calculation related to the movment of the heavenly bodies, and having ways of calculating equations based on the half-chord [essentially the sine] calculated in half-degrees ... Al-Mansur ordered this book to be translated into Arabic, and a work to be written, based on the translation, to give the Arabs a solid base for calculating the movements of the planets ...

This book, which the Indianian scholar presented from, was likely Brahmasphutasiddhanta (The Opening of the Universe) which was written in 628 CE by the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta and had used the Hindi Numerals with the zero sign.

The numeral system came to be known to both, the Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, whose book On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals written about 825, and the Arab mathematician Al-Kindi, who wrote four volumes (see [2]) "On the Use of the Indian Numerals" (Ketab fi Isti'mal al-'Adad al-Hindi) about 830, are principally responsible for the diffusion of the Indian system of numeration in the Middle-East and the West . In the tenth century AD, Middle-Eastern mathematicians extended the decimal numeral system to include fractions, as recorded in a treatise by Syrian mathematician Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi in 952-3.

[Qcumber]

Thanks a lot, Psi-Lord. I should have thought of asking Wikipedia first.

An interesting point, however, is that no native speaker of Arabic was able to answer my question.

[M@!]

Arabic numerals (also called Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals) are the most common form set of symbols used to represent numbers. They are considered one of the most significant developments in mathematics.


What we know as "Arabic numerals" were not invented by the Arabs. Instead, they were developed in India by the Hindus around 400 BC. However, because it was the Arabs who transmitted this system to the West, the numeral system became known as "Arabic". The Arabs themselves call the numerals they use “Indian numerals”, أرقام هندية, arqam hindiyyah).

..

It should be noted that in the Arab World—until modern times—the Arabic numeral system was used only by mathematicians. Muslim scientists used the Babylonian numeral system, and merchants used a numeral system similar to the Greek numeral system and the Hebrew numeral system. Therefore, it was not until Fibonacci that the Arabic numeral system was used by a large population.

-- These are the parts I thought would interest you. I took them from the net. Hope it helps!