"Arabic" numbers, or how Hindus helped Arabs get rid of their old numerical symbolism

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Dec 18, 2006 at 14:27

Zaky :

" LOL- susan doesnt know that she is using ARABIC numbers as she is posting on this forum.

Or rather she knows that it was the Hindus that invented them and the Arabs in the 8th century just carried them westwards with other booty they had looted while conquering and plundering India. The name "Arabic numbers" is a colloquialism. Its exact form is "Hindu-Arabic numerals". It attributes something to Arabs which isn't theirs. Before they adopted the Hindu symbolism for digits the Arabs used the so called Abjad system, where the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet were assigned numerical values. These are strictly speaking the "Arabic numbers" , Zaky.

> I was in Belgium in 1998 and the teller at the bank asked me to fill out the form using Arabic numbers. I remember an African was arguing with the bank teller that he didnt know Arabic numbers, and then he was told that Arabic numbers are the regular numbers you use everyday. It was quite an experience, a refreshing one.

You felt much better at once , what Zaky! Great Arabs , fantastic Moslems , my beloved brethren in faith and their peerless genius that gave this ignorant world numbers which are used daily! And to see that the thankless kaffirs don't even want to admit this splendid contribution of the descendents of the prophet to their everyday life ! How nasty !

Tell me how many Arabs know anything about ancient Hindu numeric symbolism and the way it superseded the bulky and awkward Abdjad system?

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