Hindu Numerals and Zero

Submitted by Jonathan Appleseed (United States), Mar 9, 2007 at 23:36

This is just untrue. The term 'arabic numerals' was coined by Westerners who didn't understand where the Arabs got their numerals from. The Arabs themselves got them from the Hindus, including the zero. Al-Khwarizmi was the first Arab to describe the Hindu numerals. He wrote about them in his book "On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals" in 825AD.

This was followed by al-Kindi who wrote "On the Use of the Indian Numerals" (Ketab fi Isti'mal al-'Adad al-Hindi) about 830AD. The fact that the Arabs themselves acknowledge their numerals are Hindu numerals is the term they give their numerals: ÃÑÞÇã åäÏíÉ arqam hindiyyah which literally means 'Hindu numerals'. The concept of Zero as a number, not just as an empty place holder, was invented by the Hindus.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Zero.html

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".