The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c5.28

c5.28

Mention should also be made of a widely-traveled student, Al-Mas'ūdī (885?-956), whose journeys carried him from Bagdad to Persia, India, Ceylon, and even across the China sea, and at other times to Madagascar, Syria, and Palestine.¹ He seems to have neglected no accessible sources of information, examining also the history of the Persians, the Hindus, and the Romans. Touching the period of the Caliphs his work entitled *Meadows of Gold* furnishes a most entertaining fund of information. He states² that the wise men of India, assembled by the king, composed the *Sindhind*. Further on³ he states, upon the authority of the historian Moḥammed ibn ʿAlī ʿAbdī, that by order of Al-Manṣūr many works of science and astrology were translated into Arabic, notably the *Sindhind* (*Siddhānta*). Concerning the meaning and spelling of this name there is considerable diversity of opinion. Colebrooke⁴ first pointed out the connection between *Siddhānta* and *Sindhind*. He ascribes to the word the meaning "the revolving ages."⁵ Similar designations are collected by Sédillot,⁶ who inclined to the Greek origin of the sciences commonly attributed to the Hindus.⁷ Casiri,⁸ citing the *Tārīkh al-ḥokamā* or *Chronicles of the Learned*,⁹ refers to the work as the *Sindum-Indum* with the meaning "perpetuum æternumque." The reference¹ in this ancient Arabic work to Al-Khowārazmī is worthy of note.