Modern Arabic numerals. Arabic numerals or Indian ones? What do Arabic numerals look like?
To all people with early childhood Familiar with the numbers used to count objects. There are only ten of them: from 0 to 9. That is why the number system is called decimal. Using them you can write down absolutely any number.
For thousands of years, people have used their fingers to mark numbers. Today, the decimal system is used everywhere: to measure time, when selling and buying something, in various calculations. Each person has his own numbers, for example, in his passport, on a credit card.
By milestones of history
People are so accustomed to numbers that they don’t even think about their importance in life. Probably many have heard that the numbers that are used are called Arabic. Some were taught this at school, while others learned it by accident. So why are the numbers called Arabic? What is their story?
And it is very confusing. There are no reliably accurate facts about their origin. It is known for sure that it is worth thanking the ancient astronomers. Because of them and their calculations, people today have numbers. Astronomers from India, somewhere between the 2nd and 6th centuries, became acquainted with the knowledge of their Greek colleagues. From there the sexagesimal and round zero were taken. Then Greek was combined with Chinese decimal system. The Hindus began to denote numbers with one sign, and their method quickly spread throughout Europe.
Why are numbers called Arabic?
From the eighth to the thirteenth centuries, Eastern civilization actively developed. This was especially noticeable in the field of science. Great attention was paid to mathematics and astronomy. That is, accuracy was held in high esteem. Throughout the Middle East, the city of Baghdad was considered the main center of science and culture. And all because it was geographically very advantageous. The Arabs did not hesitate to take advantage of this and actively adopted many useful things from Asia and Europe. Baghdad often gathered prominent scientists from these continents, who passed on experience and knowledge to each other and talked about their discoveries. At the same time, the Indians and Chinese used their own number systems, which consisted of only ten characters.
It wasn't invented by the Arabs. They simply highly appreciated their advantages compared to the Roman and Greek systems, which were considered the most advanced in the world at that time. But it is much more convenient to display indefinitely with only ten characters. The main advantage of Arabic numerals is not the ease of writing, but the system itself, since it is positional. That is, the position of the digit affects the value of the number. This is how people define units, tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on. It is not surprising that the Europeans also took this into account and adopted Arabic numerals. What wise scientists there were in the East! Today this seems very surprising.
Writing
What do Arabic numerals look like? Previously, they were composed of broken lines, where the number of angles was compared with the size of the sign. Most likely, Arab mathematicians expressed the idea that it was possible to associate the number of angles with the numerical value of a digit. If you look at the ancient spelling, you can see how big the Arabic numerals are. What kind of abilities did scientists have in such ancient times?
So, zero has no angles when written. The unit includes only one acute angle. The deuce contains a pair of acute angles. A three has three corners. Its correct Arabic spelling is obtained by drawing the postal code on envelopes. The quad includes four corners, the last of which creates the tail. The five has five right angles, and the six, respectively, has six. With the correct old spelling, seven has seven corners. Eight - out of eight. And nine, it’s not hard to guess, is out of nine. That is why the numbers are called Arabic: they invented the original style.
Hypotheses
Today there is no clear opinion about the formation of the writing of Arabic numerals. No scientist knows why certain numbers look the way they do and not some other way. What guided ancient scientists when giving numbers shapes? One of the most plausible hypotheses is the one with the number of angles.
Of course, over time, all the angles of the numbers were smoothed out, they gradually acquired the familiar modern man appearance And for a huge number of years, Arabic numerals around the world have been used to denote numbers. It's amazing that just ten characters can convey unimaginably large meanings.
Results
Another answer to the question of why numbers are called Arabic is the fact that the word “number” itself is also of Arabic origin. Mathematicians translated the Hindu word “sunya” into their native language and it turned out “sifr”, which is already similar to what is pronounced today.
This is all that is known about why the numbers are called Arabic. Perhaps modern scientists will still make some discoveries in this regard and shed light on their occurrence. In the meantime, people are content with only this information.
First of all, we need to remind you that numbers and numbers are not the same thing. We call numbers the special signs that represent numbers.
The answer to the question of who invented such icons and who began to use them for the first time is not so simple. Obviously, a person first learned to count, that is, he learned that everything in the world can be measured, everything can be assigned a numerical value. Having invented, people also thought about denoting numbers with some special signs.
The very first numerical symbolism
Initially, these were serifs that were made with a stick on soft material, or cut out. One mark is the number 1, two marks are 2, and so on. Moreover, in the most ancient surviving documents, the number of serifs corresponded to the number that was expressed - for example, a thousand. Many centuries passed before people figured out that numbers need to be assigned ranks and large quantities need to be denoted by separate signs. This made recording much easier
It is believed that the very first numerical notations appeared in Ancient Egypt and in ancient Babylon. The Egyptians developed a hieroglyphic script in which numbers were indicated by dashes and ranks by special symbols. Starting from a hundred, it was a stylized image of the sacred Egyptian animal - the cat.
The ancient Babylonians made a huge leap in the designation of numbers. They invented positional notation, in which the place of the sign in the sequence matters. In Babylon they used the sexagesimal number system, which we use to this day to determine time (our hour is divided into 60 minutes, a minute into 60 seconds).
The ancient Romans came up with their own numbers. Roman numerals are still in use, but their scope of application is strictly limited. Roman numerals indicate, for example, centuries and chapter numbers in a book. Looking at these signs, you can immediately understand that they trace their history back to the simplest notches - stripes. 
Roman digital notation is not positional: you can understand which number is indicated by numbers by performing certain arithmetic operations - adding or subtracting numbers according to a certain algorithm. Write in Roman numerals big numbers very difficult, and using these records for calculations is almost impossible.
Where did the modern numbers come from?
The credit for inventing modern numbers (namely, they can be considered real numbers) belongs to the Indians. In the fifth century AD, they made a major discovery: they introduced the concept of zero into mathematical use and came up with a symbol for it - emptiness circled. How important the discovery of zero was is evidenced by the fact that translated from Arabic the word itself "Syfr"(from which ours came "number" ) means zero. The Indians wrote down the remaining numbers from 1 to 9 using simple symbols, similar to those we use now.
Hindus began to represent numbers in a positional way, when the number of tens, hundreds, thousands and other digits is indicated by one digit standing at a certain position. They adopted this tradition from the Babylonians. It became possible not only to write down any numbers from zero to infinity, but also to carry out mathematical operations with them.
How did Indian numbers get to Europe and why do we call them Arabic? The Arabs were in close contact with the Indians and carried on brisk trade. Besides, in Arab countries At that time, science, culture and business were actively developing, and for this it was absolutely necessary to study mathematics. The Arabs accepted Indian numbers and began to use them.
The name of the person who first used the decimal positional notation of numbers according to the Indian method and popularized this idea in the Arab world is known. It was the Persian scientist Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, who wrote his famous treatise on arithmetic. In the book, he laid out the basics of Indian counting and digital recording.
This happened in the 9th century AD. New system quickly spread to the Middle East, and in the 10th-13th centuries it came to Europe. IN European countries Arabic numerals were initially used when minting coins, then when numbering pages in books, documents, etc. 
The Arabic digital recording system allowed humanity to make huge leaps in science, economics, and education. Any preschooler can learn this system; it has become familiar, and we rarely think about the fact that once upon a time, in order to write large numbers, people had to draw many sticks or depict a cat on papyrus!
One of my friends, after visiting Egypt, passed on to me his dialogue with another Russian tourist during an excursion to the pyramids. People who have been there know what it looks like: Arabs running around with whistles and chasing away those who like to climb the pyramids. After a short contemplation of this circus, a fellow traveler asked him, “Do you believe that THESE could build this? I don’t.” His friend agreed with him.
How Indian numerals became Arabic
Roman numerals are a number system and have their origins in the ancient Roman Empire. The Roman numeral system is one of base 10 with an auxiliary base of 5. The sign for them is not common. Set of clocks with Roman numerals.
Like most scribes and simple number systems, Roman numerals were added according to the principle of combined ten and five bundles, so that no more than four identical symbols followed each other. According to the Etruscan model, it is also practiced that the preface of a sign before one of the next two in a ten-point set indicates that its value is to be subtracted from it.
Nevertheless, every time I allow myself unflattering statements about the Arabs, there is a person who reminds me that the positional number system that we use was invented by the Arabs and that is why the numbers are called “Arabic”, in contrast to, for example, Roman .
However, these numbers were called Arabic by Europeans, who borrowed them from the Arabs.
Roman numerals were increasingly displaced from century to century by written arithmetic with Indo-Arabic numerals, which were introduced according to the Arabic model from the field of arithmetic and mathematics, where even in the previous period it was mainly the writing of numbers, but hardly played for their own written calculation operations because finger numbers and their number were given instead. However, they remained for other purposes, such as the epigraphic or decorative writing of numbers, for counting rulers, popes and other bearers of the same title for censuses of volume, book, chapter and section in texts and for numbering measuring instruments such as dials hours until today.
In the 12th century, Al-Khwarizmi’s book “On Indian Accounting” was translated into Latin language and played a very important role in the development of European arithmetic and the introduction of Indo-Arabic numerals. ()
But in Arabic they are called “ar raqm al hindi”, which means “Indian count”. They are also called Indian in Iran: “shumare ha ye hendi” in Farsi means “Indian numerals”. We cannot know for sure whether the Arabs built the pyramids, but the fact that they had nothing to do with the creation of the so-called “Arabic” numbers is a reliable and generally accepted fact.
Their use on Greek, was probably used later than the corresponding Roman and Etruscan numerals. Contrary to the presumption of older studies, therefore, according to Herschel, it is assumed that the Romans and Etruscans adopted this figure from the Chalcidian alphabet, as well as from the scribe of the older Italian peoples. According to the parallels proved by Herschel, this sign was captured by the Etruscans from an earlier Italic notation. The Romans and other peoples of Italy wrote 100, on the other hand, as the right or left side.
Research has traditionally interpreted this as a derivation from Greek writing. On the other hand, Herschel and Georges Ifrach believe that there is also a variation of the notarial and Etruscan sign for 100, in which one of the round arcs of this sign was retained completely written rounded written version F under the influence of the Latin numerator. In some cases this 8 was also divided by a vertical stroke.
Indian numerals originated in India no later than the 5th century. At the same time, the concept of zero (shunya) was discovered and formalized, which made it possible to move on to positional notation of numbers. Arabic and Indo-Arabic numerals are modified styles of Indian numerals adapted to Arabic writing. The Indian notation system was widely popularized by the scientist Al-Khwarizmi, the author of the famous work “Kitab al-jabr wa-l-muqabala”, from the name of which the term “algebra” was derived. ()
On the other hand, an additive or combined addition-subtractive digit such as Roman does not require any indication of how, on the other hand, it plays a fundamental role as a placeholder in such a case, as does its usual Indo-Arabic spelling. The Romans knew the linguistic expressions "not something" and "nothing", but not the number sign and the mathematical term for the numerical value "zero". When numbers are displayed, the absence of a position value is indicated by dropping the corresponding column; in tables, the absence of a number is sometimes indicated by a horizontal line, sometimes combined with a small circle.
But let’s imagine that we don’t have access to the Internet and books, or we don’t believe what’s written on Wikipedia. The fact that the Arabs simply took advantage of the result can be easily guessed even without knowing about the “Indian numbers”. As you know, Arabs write from right to left. But at the same time, numbers are written like most white peoples, from left to right. Therefore, if an Arab needs to write a number when writing, he has to step back to the left, figuring out how much space it will take up, write the number from left to right, and then return back to writing from right to left. Take a piece of paper and try to write the text from right to left, and the numbers as usual, and you will understand what is meant. If you have to write quickly, then you can hastily underestimate the space needed for the number, and then it will be flattened towards the end.
The factions were written out or represented by vastly different characters. In some cases they were attached to the Roman figure in the form of several dots or small transverse lines corresponding to twelfths. The characters used in a Roman number have a fixed meaning. There are basic values and five-digit subsidiary basic values. Apart from the subtraction rule, the value is independent of position.
Why are numbers called Arabic?
Today's performance with in capital letters ordinary. For and is still in use. Roman numerals are sometimes characterized by a coat or over and underline to distinguish regular letters, especially in the case of handwritten notes. In countries with non-Latin characters, Roman numerals are partially written using other graphically appropriate indigenous characters.
The inscription in Arabic "Received the amount of 25976000 reais." The last three zeros did not fit into the indentation and had to be added in small font at the top.
A more educated opponent will immediately say that the achievement of the Arabs is not so much in the creation of a system of positional calculus, but in the creation of algebra, the progenitor of which is considered to be the outstanding Arabic(more on this below) mathematics Al-Khwarizmi. He is considered the creator of algebra, of course, not for the “Arabic” numbers, but for the above-mentioned work, the book “Kitab al-jabr wa-l-mukabala”. The word "al-jabr" in the name means "transfer", and the word "wa-l-muqbala" means "bringing". Transferring terms and bringing similar ones are one of the main actions when solving equations. By the way, the word “algorithm” comes precisely from the name of Al-Khorezmi - the Latin translation of his book began with the words “Dixit Algorizmi” (said Algorizmi).
Arabic numerals in Europe
As we see, Al-Khorezmi was well acquainted with Brahmagupta’s book. Yes, he was undoubtedly a major scientist of his time, but by no means the founder of algebra. And if European mathematics received knowledge directly from India, and not through Baghdad, then algebra would now be called some kind of “brahmasphuta”.
Most likely Al-Khorezmi was not an Arab either. Why? Remember how we mentioned that in the Arabic writing system (right to left), writing numbers from left to right looks very unnatural? Couldn't a major mathematician of his time have guessed that it was possible to write numbers from right to left? Surely he could. Not even for the purpose of hiding the fact of borrowing, but simply for reasons of convenience. But he didn't. Why? Quite possibly deliberately so as to leave obvious the fact that this is a foreign system, not Arab. It’s like a message from time immemorial: look people, Arabs have nothing to do with numbers. Our guess is partially confirmed by Wikipedia
Equivalence of Roman numerals and Arabic numerals
They were designed so that the Romans could set prices for various goods and services, but were also widely used throughout the Roman Empire in Everyday life. After the fall of the Roman Empire, they continued to be used throughout Europe for up to a year. Fragments of Roman numerals. Use of Roman numerals. List of Roman numerals.
- Equivalence between Roman numerals and Arabic numerals.
- Runes for writing Roman numerals.
- Representation of large numbers.
- Column of Roman numerals: sticks and Greek alphabet.
- Zero in Roman numerals.
Very little information about the scientist’s life has been preserved. Presumably born in Khiva in 783. In some sources, al-Khorezmi is called “al-Majusi,” that is, a magician, from which it is concluded that he came from a family of Zoroastrian priests who later converted to Islam. ()
Zoroastrianism, which Wikipedia mentions, is not an ethnicity, but a religious one. It is clear that if Al-Khorezmi’s family professed Zoroastrianism, then he could not be an Arab. But by whom then? Zoroastrianism was practiced mainly by the Persians, that is, most likely he was a Persian.
Rules for writing Roman numbers
Using a combination of these 7 letters can be achieved by any combination of Arabic numerals. In his simplest form Roman numerals are created by matching the required letters so that their sum results in the required number. As can be seen from the example. This rule implies that numbers always go from left to right in descending order. This can lead to very long chains. So at some point a new rule was invented.
If a letter immediately to its left has another letter of lesser value, that value is subtracted. There are three rules for applying this subtraction rule. The remaining number should not be less than one tenth of the value of the number by which it is subtracted. The correct way to follow this rule is to treat each power of ten separately.
- You can't use numbers with five.
- Typically you can only place a smaller number on the left than on the right.
- However, this rule is sometimes broken for numbers including eight.
- Such applications are not “correct”, but they are very rare.
An even more sophisticated opponent may say that it was mentioned above that the Baghdad caliph al-Mamun ordered the translation of Brahmagupta’s book, and therefore supported the development of science. So that the reader does not have false feelings about this, let’s look at the history of Khorezm, the homeland of Al-Khorezmi.
In 712, Khorezm was conquered by the Arab commander Kuteiba ibn Muslim, who carried out brutal reprisal over the Khorezm aristocracy. Kuteiba brought down especially cruel repressions on the scientists of Khorezm. As al-Biruni writes in the “Chronicles of Past Generations,” “and by all means, Kuteiba scattered and destroyed everyone who knew the writing of the Khorezmians, who kept their traditions, all the scientists who were among them, so that all this was covered in darkness and there is no true knowledge about what was known from their history at the time of the advent of Islam." ()
By milestones of history
The rules of Roman numerals were strictly used only in relatively recent times. Exceptions can be found at many points throughout history. The Roman numbering system had problems representing numbers that were too large. For this reason, the Romans developed ways to write large numbers.
However, in some cases, a sentence containing words and numbers will use a horizontal bar to show which letters are being used as numbers. To represent even larger numbers, two sidebars have been added to the top row, multiplying the total by the other by 100, so that the included number will be multiplied by.
This is what the Arab invasion of the enlightened world represented - to slaughter all the scientists, and for the few remaining to build a library in Baghdad.
Al-Khwarizmi was presumably born in 783, that is, approximately 60 years after the arrival of the Arabs. Imagine that your homeland was captured by a tribe of nomads and your grandfathers tell stories in the evenings about how the invaders slaughtered your relatives. Apparently Al-Khorezmi quietly hated the Muslim occupiers, so he left the direction of recording numbers like the Hindus. They say let the Arabian animals suffer at least this much, writing texts from right to left, then from left to right.
What do we have in the bottom line? Arabic numerals are not Arabic at all, but Indian, but pride Arab world, allegedly the founder of algebra, the mathematician Al-Khorezmi, did not create algebra and most likely was not even an Arab.
Arabic numerals.Arabic numerals are the traditional name for a set of ten characters: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; now used in most countries to write numbers in the decimal system.
Story
Arabic numerals. The numbers 4, 5 and 6 exist in two versions, on the left - Arabic, on the right - Persian.
Indian numerals originated in India no later than the 5th century. At the same time, the concept of zero was discovered and formalized, which made it possible to move on to the secret of the origin of Arabic numbers
The traditional name of ten mathematical signs: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Using them, any numbers are written in the decimal number system. For thousands of years, people have used their fingers to indicate numbers. So, they, like us, showed one object with one finger, three with three. You could use your hand to show up to five units. For expression more both hands and in some cases both feet were used. Nowadays we use numbers all the time. We use them to measure time, buy and sell, make phone calls, watch TV, and drive a car. In addition, each person has different numbers that personally identify him. For example, on an ID card, on a bank account, on a credit card, etc. Moreover, in the computer world, all information, including this text, is transmitted through numerical codes.
We encounter numbers at every step and are so accustomed to them that we hardly realize how important role they play in our lives. Numbers are part of human thinking. Throughout history, every people wrote numbers, counted and calculated with their help. The first written numbers for which we have reliable evidence appeared in Egypt and Mesopotamia about five thousand years ago. Although the two cultures were very far apart, their number systems are very similar, as if they represented the same method - using notches on wood or stone to record the passing of days. Egyptian priests wrote on papyrus, and in Mesopotamia on soft clay. Of course, the specific forms of their numerals are different, but both cultures used simple dashes for units and other marks for tens and higher orders. In addition, in both systems the desired number was written by repeating the dashes and marks the required number of times.
Two Egyptian documents created about four thousand years ago were found, with the oldest mathematical notations of those discovered so far. It is worth noting that these are records of a mathematical nature, and not just numerical ones.
1.2 History
The history of our familiar “Arabic” numbers is very confusing. It is impossible to say exactly and reliably how they happened. One thing is certain: it is thanks to the ancient astronomers, namely their precise calculations, that we have our numbers. Between the 2nd and 6th centuries AD. Indian astronomers became acquainted with Greek astronomy. They adopted the sexagesimal system and round Greek zero. The Indians combined the principles of Greek numbering with the decimal multiplicative system taken from China. They also began to denote numbers with one sign, as was customary in the ancient Indian Brahmi numbering. The brilliant Seville translated this book into Latin, and the Indian system of counting spread widely throughout Europe.
The numbers originated in India, no later than the 5th century. At the same time, the concept of zero (shunya) was discovered and formalized. Arabic numerals originated in India, no later than the 5th century. At the same time, the concept of zero was discovered and formalized, which made it possible to move on to positional notation. which Arabic numerals became known to Europeans in the 10th century. Thanks to the close ties between Christian Barcelona and Muslim Cordoba), Silvestre was able to access scientific information, which no one had in Europe at that time. In particular, he was one of the first among Europeans to become acquainted with Arabic numerals, understand the convenience of their use compared to Roman ones, and began to introduce them into European science.
In the old Babylonian texts, dating back to 1700 BC, there is no special sign for zero; an empty space, more or less highlighted, was simply left to indicate it.
1.3 Writing numbers
The writing of Arabic numerals consisted of straight line segments, where the number of angles corresponded to the size of the sign. Probably, one of the Arab mathematicians once proposed the idea of linking the numerical value of a number with the number of angles in its writing.
Let's look at the Arabic numerals and see that
0 is a number without a single angle in the outline.
1 - contains one acute angle.
2 - contains two acute angles.
3 - contains three acute angles (the correct, Arabic, number shape is obtained when writing the number 3 when filling out the postal code on the envelope)
4 - contains 4 right angles (this explains the presence of a “tail” at the bottom of the number, which does not in any way affect its recognition and identification)
5 - contains 5 right angles (the purpose of the lower tail is the same as the number 4 - completion of the last corner)
6 - contains 6 right angles.
7 - contains 7 right and acute angles (the correct, Arabic, spelling of the number 7 differs from that shown in the figure by the presence of a hyphen crossing the vertical line at a right angle in the middle (remember how we write the number 7), which gives 4 right angles and 3 angles gives still the upper broken line)
8 - contains 8 right angles.
9 - contains 9 right angles (this is what explains the intricate lower tail of the nine, which had to complete 3 corners so that their total number becomes equal to 9.
Conclusion
We learned when and how Arabic numbers appeared, how they are written, what they are and general meaning numbers
2. Numbers of different nations
Arabic numerals used in Arabic countries in Africa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
◗ Indo - Arabic numerals
٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩
◗ Numbers in the Oriya letter.
୦୧୨୩୪୫୬୭୮୯
◗ Numbers in Tibetan script.
༠༡༢༣༤༥༦༧༨༩
◗ Numbers in Thai writing.
๐๑๒๓๔๕๖๗๘๙
◗ Numbers in Lao writing.
໐໑໒໓໔໕໖໗໘໙
The Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphs and numbers too. The Egyptians had signs to denote numbers from 1 to 10 and special hieroglyphs to denote tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions and even tens of millions. The next stage in the history of numbers was carried out by the ancient Romans. They invented a number system based on the use of letters to represent numbers. They used the letters "I", "V", "L", "C", "D", and "M" in their system. Each letter had different meaning, each digit corresponded to the position number of the letter. In order to read or write a Roman numeral, you need to follow a few basic rules.
In Central America in the first millennium AD, the Mayans wrote any number using only three characters: a dot, a line and an ellipse. A dot meant one, a line meant five, and a combination of dots and lines was used to write numbers from one to nineteen. An ellipse under any of these signs increased its value twenty times. Examples of numbers from Ancient Rome:
1 Letters are written from left to right, starting with the most of great importance. For example, “XV” – 15, “DLV” – 555, “MCLI” – 1151.
2 The letters "I", "X", "C", and "M" can be repeated up to three times in a row. For example, “II” – 2, “XXX” – 30, “CC” – 200, “MMCCXXX” – 1230.
3 The letters "V", "L" and "D" cannot be repeated.
4 The numbers 4, 9, 40, 90 and 900 should be written by combining the letters “IV” – 4, “IX” – 9, “XL” – 40, “XC” – 90, “CD” – 400, “SM” – 900. For example, 48 is “XLVIII”, 449 is “CDXLIX”. The value of the left letter decreases the value of the right one.
5 A horizontal line above a letter increases its value by 1000
Due to the use of a small number of characters to write a number, it was necessary to repeat the same character many times, forming a long series of symbols. In the documents of Aztec officials, there are accounts that indicated the results of the inventory and calculations of taxes received by the Aztecs from conquered cities. In these documents you can see long rows of characters that look like real hieroglyphs. In China, they used ivory or bamboo sticks to represent numbers from one to nine. The numbers from one to five were indicated by the number of sticks, depending on the number. So, two sticks corresponded to number two. And to indicate the numbers six to nine, one horizontal stick was placed at the top of the number. For example, 6 resembled the letter "T". The numbers, or symbols of our numbers, are of Arabic origin. Arab culture, in turn, they were borrowed from India. The period between the eighth and thirteenth centuries was one of the most brilliant periods in the history of science in the Muslim world. Muslims had close ties to both Asian and European cultures. They were able to extract the best from them. In India they borrowed the number system and some mathematical symbols.
The year 711 can be considered the year of the discovery of Indian numerals in the territories of the Middle East; they, of course, came to Europe much later. Why the Middle East? Well, it's a completely legitimate question. The fact is that the wonderful city of Bakhda - or as we used to call it - Baghdad in those days was quite an attractive place for scientists. Many scientific and pseudoscientific schools were opened there, in which, nevertheless, there was an exchange of acquired knowledge and skills. In 711 there was a treatise on the stars and, at the same time, on numbers. Now it is difficult to say whether the views on the numbers of that Indian scientist who presented the astronomical report to the world were progressive, but the fact that with his help we now have Arabic numerals is truly unforgettable and deserves much gratitude. At that time, science mainly used three number systems: Roman, Greek and Egyptian-Persian. In principle, they were quite convenient for running a small household of, say, one person, but it was very difficult to write down large numbers with their help, although ancient greek philosophers and mathematicians called their system of counting and recording numbers almost the most perfect in the world. By and large, of course, this was not true.
The method, invented by the Indians and brought to the world by the Arabs, was more convenient and economical, so it was possible to save not only resources for writing (be it papyrus, paper or even something else) but also your own time, which people at all times there was a catastrophic lack. Over time, the corners smoothed out, and the numbers took on the appearance we are familiar with. For many centuries, the whole world has been using the Arabic system of writing numbers. Huge meanings can be easily expressed with these ten icons. By the way, the word “digit” is also Arabic. Arab mathematicians translated the meaning of the Indian word “sunya” into their own language. Instead of “sunya” they began to say “sifr” or “digits”, and this is a word already familiar to us.
One of the unscientific hypotheses of the origin of the style of modern Arabic numerals. The number of angles corresponds to the numerical value of the digit. The name “Arabic numerals” was formed historically, due to the fact that it was the Arabs who spread the decimal positional number system. The numbers used in Arab countries are very different from the “Arab” ones.
This page contains beautiful Arabic numerals, which cannot be typed from the keyboard. They can be copied and pasted where the font cannot be changed (on social networks). In addition to the numbers that Europeans use, there are also real ones - those that the Arabs themselves use. And for the kit, let them lie there and Roman numerals and Indian. They won’t ask for food, I hope. They are all from Unicode, you can find out more about them by entering them into the search on the site.
Arabic:
① ② ③ ④ ⑤ ⑥ ⑦ ⑧ ⑨ ⑩ ⑪ ⑫ ⑬ ⑭ ⑮ ⑯ ⑰ ⑱ ⑲ ⑳
❶ ❷ ❸ ❹ ❺ ❻ ❼ ❽ ❾ ❿ ⓫ ⓬ ⓭ ⓮ ⓯ ⓰ ⓱ ⓲ ⓳ ⓴ ⓿ ❶ ❷ ❸ ❹ ❺ ❻ ❼ ❽ ❾ ❿
⓵ ⓶ ⓷ ⓸ ⓹ ⓺ ⓻ ⓼ ⓽ ⓾
¼ ½ ¾ ⅐ ⅑ ⅒ ⅓ ⅔ ⅕ ⅖ ⅗ ⅘ ⅙ ⅚ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ ⅟
⑴ ⑵ ⑶ ⑷ ⑸ ⑹ ⑺ ⑻ ⑼ ⑽ ⑾ ⑿ ⒀ ⒁ ⒂ ⒃ ⒄ ⒅ ⒆ ⒇
⒈ ⒉ ⒊ ⒋ ⒌ ⒍ ⒎ ⒏ ⒐ ⒑ ⒒ ⒓ ⒔ ⒕ ⒖ ⒗ ⒘ ⒙ ⒚ ⒛
𝟎 𝟏 𝟐 𝟑 𝟒 𝟓 𝟔 𝟕 𝟖 𝟗 𝟘 𝟙 𝟚 𝟛 𝟜 𝟝 𝟞 𝟟 𝟠 𝟡 𝟢 𝟣 𝟤 𝟥 𝟦 𝟧 𝟨 𝟩 𝟪 𝟫 𝟬 𝟭 𝟮 𝟯 𝟰 𝟱 𝟲 𝟳 𝟴 𝟵 𝟶 𝟷 𝟸 𝟹 𝟺 𝟻 𝟼 𝟽 𝟾 𝟿
Roman:
Ⅰ – 1 ; ⅩⅠ - 11
Ⅱ – 2 ; ⅩⅡ - 12
Ⅲ – 3 ; ⅩⅢ - 13
Ⅳ – 4 ; ⅩⅣ - 14
Ⅴ – 5 ; ⅩⅤ - 15
Ⅵ – 6 ; ⅩⅥ - 16
Ⅶ – 7 ; ⅩⅦ - 17
Ⅷ – 8 ; ⅩⅧ - 18
Ⅸ – 9 ; ⅩⅨ - 19
Ⅹ – 10 ; ⅩⅩ - 20
Ⅽ – 50 ; ⅩⅩⅠ - 21
Arabic for Arabs = Indian in Devanagari script = understandable to us
A little history. It is believed that the Arabic number system originated in India around the 5th century. Although, it is possible that even earlier in Babylon. Arabic numbers are called because they came to Europe from the Arabs. First, in the Muslim part of Spain, and in the 10th century, Pope Sylvester II also called for the abandonment of the cumbersome Latin notation. A serious impetus for the dissemination of Arabic numerals was the translation into Latin of Al-Khorezmi’s book “On Indian Accounting”.
The Hindu-Arabic number system is decimal. Any number is made up of 10 characters. Unicode, by the way, uses hexadecimal numbers. It is more convenient than the Roman one because it is positional. In such systems, the value that a digit denotes depends on its position in the number. In the number 90, the number 9 means ninety, and in the number 951, nine hundred. In non-positional systems, the location of the symbol does not play such a role. The Roman X means ten in both the number XII and the number MXC. Many peoples wrote numbers in a similar non-positional way. Among the Greeks and Slavs, some letters of the alphabet also had a numerical value.
Arabic numerals became known to Europeans in the 10th century. Thanks to the close ties between Christian Barcelona (County of Barcelona) and Muslim Cordoba (Cordoba Caliphate), Sylvester II (Pope from 999 to 1003) had access to scientific information that no one else had in Europe at that time.
In particular, he was one of the first among Europeans to become acquainted with Arabic numerals, understood the convenience of their use compared to Roman numerals, and began to promote their introduction into European science.
In the 12th century, Al-Khwarizmi’s book “On Indian Counting” was translated into Latin and played a very important role in the development of European arithmetic and the introduction of Indo-Arabic numerals.
Arabic and Indo-Arabic numerals are modified styles of Indian numerals adapted to Arabic writing.
Currently, humanity uses the decimal number system when counting, that is, we count in tens from 0 to 9.
The name “Arabic numerals” was formed historically, due to the fact that it was the Arabs who spread the decimal positional number system. The numbers used in Arab countries are very different in design from those used in European countries.
