The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c10.44

c10.44

Contemporary with Al-Khowārazmī, and working also under Al-Māmūn, was a Jewish astronomer, Abū 'l-Ṭeiyib, Sened ibn ʿAlī, who is said to have adopted the Mohammedan religion at the caliph's request. He also wrote a work on Hindu arithmetic,¹ so that the subject must have been attracting considerable attention at that time. Indeed, the struggle to have the Hindu numerals replace the Arabic did not cease for a long time thereafter. ʿAlī ibn Aḥmed al-Nasawī, in his arithmetic of c. 1025, tells us that the symbolism of number was still unsettled in his day, although most people preferred the strictly Arabic forms.²