The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c9.16

c9.16

At first sight there would seem to be some reason for believing that this feature of the ġobār system was of Arabic origin, and that the present zero of these people,¹ the dot, was derived from it. It was entirely natural that the Semitic people generally should have adopted such a scheme, since their diacritical marks would suggest it, not to speak of the possible influence of the Greek accents in the Hellenic number system. When we consider, however, that the dot is found for zero in the Bakhṣālī manuscript,² and that it was used in subscript form in the *Kitāb al-Fihrist*³ in the tenth century, and as late as the sixteenth century,⁴ although in this case probably under Arabic influence, we are forced to believe that this form may also have been of Hindu origin.