The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c11.165

c11.165

It was about the same time that the *Sefer ha-Mispar*,² the Book of Number, appeared in the Hebrew language. The author, Rabbi Abraham ibn Meïr ibn Ezra,³ was born in Toledo (*c.* 1092). In 1139 he went to Egypt, Palestine, and the Orient, spending also some years in Italy. Later he lived in southern France and in England. He died in 1167. The probability is that he acquired his knowledge of the Hindu arithmetic⁴ in his native town of Toledo, but it is also likely that the knowledge of other systems which he acquired on travels increased his appreciation of this one. We have mentioned the fact that he used the first letters of the Hebrew alphabet, ט ח ז ו ה ד ג ב א, for the numerals 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, and a circle for the zero. The quotation in the note given below shows that he knew of the Hindu origin; but in his manuscript, although he set down the Hindu forms, he used the above nine Hebrew letters with place value for all computations.