The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c11.5

c11.5

Furthermore, there was abundant opportunity for the numerals of the East to reach Europe through the journeys of travelers and ambassadors. It was from the records of Suleimān the Merchant, a well-known Arab trader of the ninth century, that part of the story of Sindbād the Sailor was taken.² Such a merchant would have been particularly likely to know the numerals of the people whom he met, and he is a type of man that may well have taken such symbols to European markets. A little later, Abū 'l-Ḥasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī (d. 956) of Bagdad traveled to the China Sea on the east, at least as far south as Zanzibar, and to the Atlantic on the west,¹ and he speaks of the nine figures with which the Hindus reckoned.²