The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c9.120

c9.120

Again, not far from the time of Boethius, in the sixth century, the Egyptian monk Cosmas, in his earlier years as a trader, made journeys to Abyssinia and even to India and Ceylon, receiving the name *Indicopleustes* (the Indian traveler). His map (547 A.D.) shows some knowledge of the earth from the Atlantic to India. Such a man would, with hardly a doubt, have observed every numeral system used by the people with whom he sojourned,² and whether or not he recorded his studies in permanent form he would have transmitted such scraps of knowledge by word of mouth.