History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v1.c7.s15.4

v1.c7.s15.4

Before the time of Mohammad the Arabs did not possess a satisfactory numeral notation. The numerous computations connected with the financial administration of the conquered lands, however, made the use of a developed numeral notation indispensable. In some localities the numerals of the more civilised conquered nations were used for a time. Thus in Syria, the Greek notation was retained, and in Egypt the Coptic. To this early period belongs the Edict of Khalif Walid (699) which forbade the use of the Greek language in public accounts, but made a special reservation in favour of Greek letters as numerical signs, on the ground that the Arabic language possessed no numerals of its own.¹ The Arabic letters gradually replaced the Greek ones in the alphabetic notation and the *abjad* notation came to be used. It is probable that the Arabs had come to know of the Hindu numerals from the writings of scholars like Sebokht, and aslo of their old *ghobâr* forms from other sources. But as their informants could not supply all the necessary information (*e.g.*, the methods of performing the ordinary operations of arithmetic) these numerals had to wait for another century before they were adopted in some of their mathematical works.