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This article is about the symbols only. For numerical system, see Hindu–Arabic numeral system. For other uses, see Arabic
Contribute numerals (disambiguation). For Numeric system in Arab Script, see Eastern Arabic numerals.
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Related changes Arabic numerals are the ten numerical digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Special pages They are the most commonly used symbols to write decimal numbers.
Permanent link They are also used for writing numbers in other systems such as octal, and Arabic numerals set in Source Sans typeface
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for writing identifiers such as computer symbols, trademarks, or license
Cite this page
Wikidata item plates. The term often implies a decimal number, in particular when
Part of a series on
contrasted with Roman numerals. Numeral systems
Print/export
They are also called Western Arabic numerals, Ghubār numerals, Hindu-Arabic Place-value notation [show]
Download as PDF
[show]
Printable version numerals,[disputed (for: No indication this term means this subset of digit symbols) – discuss][1] Sign-value notation

Western digits, Latin digits, or European digits.[2] The Oxford English Dictionary List of numeral systems
In other projects
differentiates them with the fully capitalized Arabic Numerals to refer to the Eastern V ·T ·E
Wikimedia Commons
digits.[3] The term numbers or numerals or digits often implies only these symbols,
Languages however this can only be inferred from context.
‫العربية‬ It was in the Algerian city of Béjaïa that the Italian scholar Fibonacci first encountered the numerals; his work was crucial in
Deutsch
making them known throughout Europe. European trade, books, and colonialism helped popularize the adoption of Arabic
Español
Français numerals around the world. The numerals have found worldwide use significantly beyond the contemporary spread of the Latin
한국어 alphabet, and have become commonly used in the writing systems in where other numeral systems existed previously, such as
Русский Chinese and Japanese numerals.
+,-
Tiếng Việt Contents [hide]
1 History
58 more 1.1 Origin

Edit links 1.2 Adoption and spread

1.2.1 Italy
1.2.2 Europe
1.2.3 Russia
1.2.4 China
2 Encoding
3 Comparison with other digits
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 Sources
8 Further reading
9 External links

History [ edit ]

Origin [ edit ]
The reason the digits are more commonly known as "Arabic numerals" in Europe and the
Americas is that they were introduced to Europe in the 10th century by Arabic speakers of
Spain and North Africa, who were then using the digits from Libya to Morocco. In the
eastern part of Arabic Peninsula, Arabs were using the Eastern Arabic numerals or
"Mashriki" numerals: ٩ ٨ ٧ ٦ ٥ ٤ ٣ ٢ ١ ٠[a][4]

Al-Nasawi wrote in the early 11th century that mathematicians had not agreed on the form
of the numerals, but most of them had agreed to train themselves with the forms now
known as Eastern Arabic numerals.[5] The oldest specimens of the written numerals
available are from Egypt and date to 873–874 CE. They show three forms of the numeral Evolution of Indian numerals into
Arabic numerals and their adoption in
"2" and two forms of the numeral "3", and these variations indicate the divergence between
Europe
what later became known as the Eastern Arabic numerals and the Western Arabic
numerals.[6] The Western Arabic numerals came to be used in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus
from the 10th century onward.[7] Some amount of consistency in the Western Arabic numeral forms endured from the 10th
century, found in a Latin manuscript of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae from 976 and the Gerbertian abacus, into the 12th and
13th centuries, in early manuscripts of translations from the city of Toledo.[4]

Calculations were originally performed using a dust board (takht, Latin: tabula), which involved writing symbols with a stylus and
erasing them. The use of the dust board appears to have introduced a divergence in terminology as well: whereas the Hindu
reckoning was called ḥisāb al-hindī in the east, it was called ḥisāb al-ghubār in the west (literally, "calculation with dust").[8] The
numerals themselves were referred to in the west as ashkāl al‐ghubār ("dust figures") or qalam al-ghubår ("dust letters").[9] Al-
Uqlidisi later invented a system of calculations with ink and paper "without board and erasing" (bi-ghayr takht wa-lā maḥw bal bi-
dawāt wa-qirṭās).[10]

A popular myth claims that the symbols were designed to indicate their numeric value through the number of angles they
contained, but no evidence exists of this, and the myth is difficult to reconcile with any digits past 4.[11]

Adoption and spread [ edit ]

The first mentions of the numerals from 1 to 9 in the West are found in the Codex Vigilanus
of 976, an illuminated collection of various historical documents covering a period from
antiquity to the 10th century in Hispania.[12] Other texts show that numbers from 1 to 9 were
occasionally supplemented by a placeholder known as sipos, represented as a circle or
wheel, reminiscent of the eventual symbol for zero. The Arabic term for zero is sifr (‫)صفر‬, The first Arabic numerals in the
West appeared in the Codex
transliterated into Latin as cifra, and the origin of the English word cipher.
Albeldensis in Spain.
From the 980s, Gerbert of Aurillac (later, Pope Sylvester II) used his position to spread
knowledge of the numerals in Europe. Gerbert studied in Barcelona in his youth. He was
known to have requested mathematical treatises concerning the astrolabe from Lupitus of Barcelona after he had returned to
France.[12]

The reception of Arabic numerals in the West was gradual and lukewarm, as other numeral systems circulated in addition to the
older Roman numbers. As a discipline, the first to adopt Arabic numerals as part of their own writings were astronomers and
astrologists, evidenced from manuscripts surviving from mid-12th-century Bavaria. Reinher of Paderborn (1140–1190) used the
numerals in his calendrical tables to calculate the dates of Easter more easily in his text Compotus emendatus.[13]

Italy [ edit ]

Fibonacci, a mathematician from the Republic of Pisa who had studied in Béjaïa (Bugia),
Algeria, promoted the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in Europe with his 1202 book Liber
Abaci:

When my father, who had been appointed by his country as public notary in the
customs at Bugia acting for the Pisan merchants going there, was in charge, he
summoned me to him while I was still a child, and having an eye to usefulness
and future convenience, desired me to stay there and receive instruction in the
school of accounting. There, when I had been introduced to the art of the Indians'
nine symbols through remarkable teaching, knowledge of the art very soon
pleased me above all else and I came to understand it.

The Liber Abaci introduced the huge advantages of a positional numeric system, and was
widely influential. As Fibonacci used the symbols from Béjaïa for the digits, these symbols
were also introduced in the same instruction, ultimately leading to their widespread A page of the Liber Abaci. The list
adoption.[14] on the right shows the Fibonacci
sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34,
Fibonacci's introduction coincided with Europe's commercial revolution of the 12th and 13th 55, 89, 144, 233, 377. The 2, 8, and
centuries, centered in Italy. Positional notation could be used for quicker and more complex 9 resemble Arabic numerals more
than Eastern Arabic numerals or
mathematical operations (such as currency conversion) than Roman and other numeric Indian numerals
systems could. They could also handle larger numbers, did not require a separate
reckoning tool, and allowed the user to check a calculation without repeating the entire
procedure.[14] Although positional notation opened possibilities that were hampered by previous systems, late medieval Italian
merchants did not stop using Roman numerals (or other reckoning tools). Rather, Arabic numerals became an additional tool that
could be used alongside others.[14]

Europe [ edit ]

In the late 14th only a few texts using Arabic numerals appeared outside of Italy. This
suggests that the use of Arabic numerals in commercial practice, and the significant
advantage they conferred, remained a virtual Italian monopoly until the late 15th century.[14]
This may in part have been due to language – although Fibonacci's Liber Abaci was written
in Latin, the Italian abacus traditions was predominantly written in Italian vernaculars that
circulated in the private collections of abacus schools or individuals. It was likely difficult for
non-Italian merchant bankers to access comprehensive information.

The European acceptance of the numerals was accelerated by the invention of the printing
press, and they became widely known during the 15th century. Their use grew steadily in
other centers of finance and trade such as Lyon.[15] Early evidence of their use in Britain
includes: an equal hour horary quadrant from 1396,[16] in England, a 1445 inscription on the
tower of Heathfield Church, Sussex; a 1448 inscription on a wooden lych-gate of Bray
Church, Berkshire; and a 1487 inscription on the belfry door at Piddletrenthide church,
Dorset; and in Scotland a 1470 inscription on the tomb of the first Earl of Huntly in Elgin
A German manuscript page
Cathedral.[17] In central Europe, the King of Hungary Ladislaus the Posthumous, started the
teaching use of Arabic numerals
use of Arabic numerals, which appear for the first time in a royal document of 1456.[18] (Talhoffer Thott, 1459). At this time,
knowledge of the numerals was still
By the mid-16th century, they were in common use in most of Europe. Roman numerals widely seen as esoteric, and
remained in use mostly for the notation of Anno Domini years, and for numbers on clock Talhoffer presents them with the
Hebrew alphabet and astrology.
faces.[citation needed] Other digits (such as Eastern Arabic) were virtually
unknown.[citation needed]

Russia [ edit ]

Prior to the introduction of Arabic numerals, Cyrillic numerals, derived from

the Cyrillic alphabet, were used by South and East Slavic peoples. The
system was used in Russia as late as the early 18th century, although it
was formally replaced in official use by Peter the Great in 1699.[19]
Reasons for Peter's switch from the alphanumerical system are believed to
go beyond his desire to imitate the West. Historian Peter Brown makes
arguments for sociological, militaristic, and pedagogical reasons for the
Table of numerals in many variants, 1757, by Jean-
change. At a broad, societal level, Russian merchants, soldiers, and
Étienne Montucla
officials increasingly came into contact with counterparts from the West and
became familiar with the communal use of Arabic numerals. Peter the
Great also travelled incognito throughout Northern Europe from 1697 to 1698 during his Grand Embassy and was likely exposed
to Western mathematics, if informally, during this time.[20] The Cyrillic numeric system was also inferior in terms of calculating
properties of objects in motions, such as the trajectories and parabolic flight patterns of artillery. It was unable to keep pace with
Arabic numerals in the growing science of ballistics, whereas Western mathematicians such as John Napier had been publishing
on the topic since 1614.[21]

China [ edit ]

Chinese numeral systems that used positional notation (such as the counting rod system
and Suzhou numerals) were in use in China previous to the introduction of Arabic
numerals,[22][23] some were introduced to medieval China by the Muslim Hui people. In the
early 17th century, European-style Arabic numerals were introduced by Spanish and
Portuguese Jesuits.[24][25][26]

Encoding [ edit ]

The ten Arabic numerals are encoded in virtually every character set designed for electric,
radio, and digital communication, such as Morse code. Iron plate with an order 6 magic
square in Persian/Arabic numbers
They are encoded in ASCII at positions 0x30 to 0x39. Masking to the lower 4 binary bits (or from China, dating to the Yuan
Dynasty (1271–1368).
taking the last hexadecimal digit) gives the value of the digit, a great help in converting text
to numbers on early computers. These positions were inherited in Unicode.[27] EBCDIC
used different values, but also had the lower 4 bits equal to the digit value.

ASCII ASCII ASCII ASCII EBCDIC

Unicode
Binary Octal Decimal Hex Hex

0 0011 0000 060 48 30 U+0030 DIGIT ZERO F0

1 0011 0001 061 49 31 U+0031 DIGIT ONE F1

2 0011 0010 062 50 32 U+0032 DIGIT TWO F2

3 0011 0011 063 51 33 U+0033 DIGIT THREE F3

4 0011 0100 064 52 34 U+0034 DIGIT FOUR F4

5 0011 0101 065 53 35 U+0035 DIGIT FIVE F5

6 0011 0110 066 54 36 U+0036 DIGIT SIX F6

7 0011 0111 067 55 37 U+0037 DIGIT SEVEN F7

8 0011 1000 070 56 38 U+0038 DIGIT EIGHT F8

9 0011 1001 071 57 39 U+0039 DIGIT NINE F9

Comparison with other digits [ edit ]

Symbol Used with scripts Numerals

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 many Arabic numerals

! " # $ % & ' ( ) * Brahmi Brahmi numerals

० १ २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९ Devanagari Devanagari numerals

! " # $ % & ' ( ) * Bengali–Assamese Bengali numerals

੦ ੧ ੨ ੩ ੪ ੫ ੬ ੭ ੮ ੯ Gurmukhi Gurmukhi numerals

! " # $ % & ' ( ) * Gujarati Gujarati numerals

୦ ୧ ୨ ୩ ୪ ୫ ୬ ୭ ୮ ୯ Odia Odia numerals

᱐ ᱑ ᱒ ᱓ ᱔ ᱕ ᱖ ᱗ ᱘ ᱙ Santali Santali numerals

! " # $ % & ' ( ) * Sharada Sharada numerals

! " # $ % & ' ( ) * Tamil Tamil numerals

! " # $ % & ' ( ) * Telugu Telugu script § Numerals

೦ ೧ ೨ ೩ ೪ ೫ ೬ ೭ ೮ ೯ Kannada Kannada script § Numerals

൦ ൧ ൨ ൩ ൪ ൫ ൬ ൭ ൮ ൯ Malayalam Malayalam numerals

Sinhala Sinhala numerals

၀ ၁ ၂ ၃ ၄ ၅ ၆ ၇ ၈ ၉ Burmese Burmese numerals

༠ ༡ ༢ ༣ ༤ ༥ ༦ ༧ ༨ ༩ Tibetan Tibetan numerals

᠐ ᠑ ᠒ ᠓ ᠔ ᠕ ᠖ ᠗ ᠘ ᠙ Mongolian Mongolian numerals

០ ១ ២ ៣ ៤ ៥ ៦ ៧ ៨ ៩ Khmer Khmer numerals

๐ ๑ ๒ ๓ ๔ ๕ ๖ ๗ ๘ ๙ Thai Thai numerals

໐ ໑ ໒ ໓ ໔ ໕ ໖ ໗ ໘ ໙ Lao Lao script § Numerals

᮰ ᮱ ᮲ ᮳ ᮴ ᮵ ᮶ ᮷ ᮸ ᮹ Sundanese Sundanese numerals

! " # $ % & ' ( ) * Javanese Javanese numerals

᭐ ᭑ ᭒ ᭓ ᭔ ᭕ ᭖ ᭗ ᭘ ᭙ Balinese Balinese numerals

٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩ Arabic

۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹ Persian / Dari / Pashto Eastern Arabic numerals

۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹ Urdu / Shahmukhi

- ፩ ፪ ፫ ፬ ፭ ፮ ፯ ፱ ፱ Ethio-Semitic Ge'ez numerals

East Asia Chinese numerals

See also [ edit ]

Regional variations in modern handwritten Arabic numerals

Arabic numeral variations
Text figures
Seven-segment display

Notes [ edit ]
a. ^ Shown right-to-left, zero is on the right, nine on the left.

References [ edit ]
1. ^ "Arabic numeral" . American Heritage Dictionary. Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 2020. Archived from the
original on 21 November 2021. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
2. ^ Terminology for Digits Archived 26 October 2021 at the
Wayback Machine. Unicode Consortium.
3. ^ "Arabic", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition
4. ^ a b Burnett, Charles (2002). Dold-Samplonius, Yvonne; Van
Dalen, Benno; Dauben, Joseph; Folkerts, Menso (eds.). From
China to Paris: 2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical Ideas .
Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 237–288. ISBN 978-3-515-08223-5.
Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July
2022.
5. ^ Kunitzsch 2003, p. 7: "Les personnes qui se sont occupées de la
science du calcul n'ont pas été d'accord sur une partie des formes
de ces neuf signes; mais la plupart d'entre elles sont convenues
de les former comme il suit."
6. ^ Kunitzsch 2003, p. 5.
7. ^ Kunitzsch 2003, pp. 12–13: "While specimens of Western Arabic
numerals from the early period—the tenth to thirteenth centuries—
are still not available, we know at least that Hindu reckoning
(called ḥisāb al-ghubār) was known in the West from the 10th
century onward..."
8. ^ Kunitzsch 2003, p. 8.
9. ^ Kunitzsch 2003, p. 10.
10. ^ Kunitzsch 2003, pp. 7–8.
11. ^ Ifrah, Georges (1998). The universal history of numbers: from
prehistory to the invention of the computer. Translated by David
Bellos (from the French). London: Harvill Press. pp. 356–357.
ISBN 9781860463242.
12. ^ a b Nothaft, C. Philipp E. (3 May 2020). "Medieval Europe's
satanic ciphers: on the genesis of a modern myth" . British
Journal for the History of Mathematics. 35 (2): 107–136.
doi:10.1080/26375451.2020.1726050 . ISSN 2637-5451 .
S2CID 213113566 . Springer. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-7923-4066-9. Archived
13. ^ Herold, Werner (2005). "Der "computus emendatus" des
Reinher von Paderborn" . ixtheo.de (in German). Archived
from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
14. ^ a b c d Danna, Raffaele (12 July 2021). The Spread of Hindu-
Arabic Numerals in the European Tradition of Practical Arithmetic:
a Socio-Economic Perspective (13th–16th centuries) (Thesis
thesis). University of Cambridge. doi:10.17863/cam.72497 .
Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 29 July
2022.
15. ^ Danna, Raffaele; Iori, Martina; Mina, Andrea (22 June 2022). "A
Numerical Revolution: The Diffusion of Practical Mathematics and
the Growth of Pre-modern European Economies" . Rochester,
NY. doi:10.2139/ssrn.4143442 . S2CID 250435577 .
SSRN 4143442 . Archived from the original on 30 July 2022.
Retrieved 29 July 2022.
16. ^ "14th century timepiece unearthed in Qld farm shed" . ABC
News. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012.
Retrieved 10 November 2011.
17. ^ See G. F. Hill, The Development of Arabic Numerals in Europe,
for more examples.
18. ^ Erdélyi: Magyar művelődéstörténet 1-2. kötet. Kolozsvár, 1913,
1918.
19. ^ Conatser Segura, Sylvia (26 May 2020). Orthographic Reform
and Language Planning in Russian History (Thesis thesis).
Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July
2022.
20. ^ Brown, Peter B. (2012). "Muscovite Arithmetic in Seventeenth-
Century Russian Civilization: Is It Not Time to Discard the
"Backwardness" Label?" . Russian History. 39 (4): 393–459.
doi:10.1163/48763316-03904001 . ISSN 0094-288X .
Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July
2022.
21. ^ Lockwood, E. H. (October 1978). "Mathematical discoveries
1600-1750, by P. L. Griffiths. Pp 121. £2·75. 1977. SBN 0 7223
1006 4 (Stockwell)" . The Mathematical Gazette. 62 (421): 219.
doi:10.2307/3616704 . ISSN 0025-5572 . JSTOR 3616704 .
Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July
2022.
22. ^ Shell-Gellasch, Amy (2015). Algebra in context : introductory
algebra from origins to applications . J. B. Thoo. Baltimore.
ISBN 978-1-4214-1728-8. OCLC 907657424 .
23. ^ Uy, Frederick L. (January 2003). "The Chinese Numeration
System and Place Value" . Teaching Children Mathematics. 9
(5): 243–247. doi:10.5951/tcm.9.5.0243 . ISSN 1073-5836 .
Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July
2022.
24. ^ Helaine Selin, ed. (1997). Encyclopaedia of the history of
science, technology, and medicine in non-western cultures .
from the
original on 27 October 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
25. ^ Meuleman, Johan H. (2002). Islam in the era of globalization:
Muslim attitudes towards modernity and identity . Psychology
Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-7007-1691-3. Archived from the
original on 27 October 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
26. ^ Peng Yoke Ho (2000). Li, Qi and Shu: An Introduction to Science
and Civilization in China . Mineola, New York: Courier Dover
Publications. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-486-41445-4. Archived from
the original on 27 October 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
27. ^ "The Unicode Standard, Version 13.0" (PDF). unicode.org.
Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 June 2001. Retrieved
1 September 2021.

Sources [ edit ]

Kunitzsch, Paul (2003). "The Transmission of Hindu-Arabic Numerals Reconsidered" . In J. P. Hogendijk; A. I. Sabra (eds.). The
Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives. MIT Press. pp. 3–22. ISBN 978-0-262-19482-2.

Further reading [ edit ]

Ore, Oystein (1988), "Hindu-Arabic numerals" , Number Theory and Its History, Dover, pp. 19–24 , ISBN 0486656209.
Burnett, Charles (2006), "The Semantics of Indian Numerals in Arabic, Greek and Latin", Journal of Indian Philosophy,
Springer-Netherlands, 34 (1–2): 15–30, doi:10.1007/s10781-005-8153-z , S2CID 170783929 .
Encyclopædia Britannica (Kim Plofker) (2007), "mathematics, South Asian" , Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 189 (4761): 1–
12, Bibcode:1961Natur.189S.273. , doi:10.1038/189273c0 , S2CID 4288165 , retrieved 18 May 2007.
Hayashi, Takao (1995), The Bakhshali Manuscript, An ancient Indian mathematical treatise, Groningen: Egbert Forsten,
ISBN 906980087X.
Ifrah, Georges (2000), A Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to Computers, New York: Wiley, ISBN 0471393401.
Katz, Victor J., ed. (20 July 2007), The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook,
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691114859.

External links [ edit ]

Lam Lay Yong, "Development of Hindu Arabic and Traditional Chinese Arithmetic" , Wikimedia Commons has
Chinese Science 13 (1996): 35–54. media related to:
Arabic numerals (category)
"Counting Systems and Numerals" , Historyworld. Retrieved 11 December 2005.
The Evolution of Numbers . 16 April 2005.
O'Connor, J. J., and E. F. Robertson, Indian numerals . November 2000.
History of the numerals
Arabic numerals
Hindu-Arabic numerals
Numeral & Numbers' history and curiosities
Gerbert d'Aurillac's early use of Hindu-Arabic numerals at Convergence

V ·T ·E Mathematics in medieval Islam [show]

Categories: Numerals

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