A History of Mathematical Notations/Volume 1/Early Arabs

by Florian Cajori

EARLY ARABS

1	ا‎	10	ی‎	100	ق‎	100	غ‎	10 000	یغ‎	100 000	قغ‎
2	ب‎	20	ك‎	200	ر‎	200	بغ‎	20 000	كغ‎	200 000	رغ‎
3	ج‎	30	ل‎	300	ش‎	300	جغ‎	30 000	لغ‎	300 000	شغ‎
4	د‎	40	م‎	400	ت‎	400	دغ‎	40 000	مغ‎	400 000	تغ‎
5	ه‎	50	ن‎	500	ث‎	500	هغ‎	50 000	نغ‎	500 000	ثغ‎
6	و‎	60	س‎	600	خ‎	600	وغ‎	60 000	سغ‎	600 000	خغ‎
7	ز‎	70	ع‎	700	ذ‎	700	زغ‎	70 000	عغ‎	700 000	ذغ‎
8	ح‎	80	ف‎	800	ض‎	800	حغ‎	80 000	فغ‎	800 000	ضغ‎
9	ط‎	90	ص‎	900	ظ‎	900	طغ‎	90 000	صغ‎	900 000	ظغ‎

Fig. 14.—Arabic alphabetic numerals used before the introduction of the Hindu-Arabic numerals.

45. At the time of Mohammed the Arabs had a script which did not differ materially from that of later centuries. The letters of the early Arabic alphabet came to be used as numerals among the Arabs as early as the sixth century of our era.^[1] After the time of Mohammed, the conquering Moslem armies coming in contact with Greek culture acquired the Greek numerals. Administrators and military leaders used them. A tax record of the eighth century contains numbers expressed by Arabic letters and also by Greek letters.^[2] Figure 14 is a table given by Ruska, exhibiting the Arabic letters and the numerical values which they represent. Taking the symbol for 1,000 twice, on the multiplicative principle, yielded 1,000,000. The Hindu-Arabic numerals, with the zero, began to spread among the Arabs in the ninth and tenth centuries, and they slowly displaced the Arabic and Greek numerals.^[3]

 

1. Julius Ruska, “Zur ältesten arabischen Algebra und Rechenkunst,” Sitzungsberichte d. Heidelberger Akademie der Wissensch. (Philos.-histor. Klasse, 1917; 2. Abhandlung), p. 37.
2. Ibid., p. 40.
3. Ibid., 47.