Decimal place-value numerals ('Arabic' numerals)
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
The digits 0–9 used across the world, where a digit's value depends on its place, were developed in India and reached Europe through Arabic scholars. That is why Europeans called them 'Arabic' numerals.
India first (well documented)Mathematics & astronomy
Indian claim
The so-called Arabic numerals are Indian: the nine digits plus zero in a decimal place-value system were created in India.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Aryabhata (499 CE) works with a decimal place-value system, and Brahmagupta (628 CE) calculates with zero.
- In 662 CE the Syrian bishop Severus Sebokht praised the nine signs of the Hindus (MacTutor).
- Al-Khwarizmi's book on calculation with Hindu numerals (c. 825 CE) spread the system in the Arabic world; Arabic writers called the digits Hindi numerals.
- Fibonacci's Liber Abaci (1202) taught the 'nine Indian figures' and the sign 0 to Europeans.
Commonly credited to
The numerals are often called Arabic because Europe learned them from Arabic books, and other cultures had place-value systems too.
Evidence for the other claim
- Babylonians used place value much earlier, but in base 60 and without a full zero.
- Chinese counting rods were laid out in a decimal place-value pattern, with a blank space for an empty place.
- The shapes of the digits changed a great deal as they passed through Arabic and European scripts.
What historians and scientists say
Historians agree the modern decimal place-value numerals with zero come from India. 'Hindu-Arabic numerals' is the accurate name: Indian invention, Arabic transmission.