[Originally posted on April 26, 2013 – reposted]
Contrary to what we are told in school.
It was not the Arabs, but rather the Hindus, who invented the Arabic Numeral System – which should have been named the Hindu Numeral System.
https://asn.am/cdp/topics/arabic-numbers.php
Arabic numerals were neither invented by nor used by the Arabs. They were developed in India by the Hindus c. 600 A.D. These numbers were written
backwards, thus one hundred twenty three was written 321.Around 750 AD, this system of decimal arithmetic was brought to Persia when several important Hindu works were translated into Arabic. In the cultural diffusion of the numeral system to Europe, the method of writing numbers became reversed to the present method.
Now, Arabs are rather smart; but in this case, our Western numeral system was invented by Hindus. The Arabs were between Europe and India, so the knowledge of the numeral system was diffused through the Arab world. Hence, it was misnamed the Arabic Numeral System.
The name “algebra” does come from Arabic. However, it may have been invented by Babylonians, Greeks, and Persians (the Persians were Muslim by that time).
There were some important Arab mathematicians, such as Abū al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Qalaṣādī.
A lot of this information filtered into Europe through Islamic-ruled Spain. Hence the confusion.
May 4, 2021 – Edited: Fixed link. Added more info.
November 19, 2024 – Edited: Re-dated. Converted to post. Added image.