The Hindu-Arabic numerals / by David Eugene Smith and Louis Charles Karpinski.

  • David Eugene Smith
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Hindu-Arabic numerals / by David Eugene Smith and Louis Charles Karpinski. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    writers, even to the present clay.1 Indeed the plirase 'ilm liindi, “Indian science,” is used by them for arith- metic, as also the adjective hindl alone.2 Probably the most striking testimony from Arabic sources is that given by the Arabic traveler and scholar Mohammed ibn Ahmed, Abu ’1-Rlhan al-BIrani (973- 1048), who spent many years in Hindustan. He wrote a large work on India,3 one on ancient chronology,4 the “ Book of the Ciphers,” unfortunately lost, which treated doubtless of the Hindu art of calculating, and was the author of numerous other works. Al-Blrunl was a man of unusual attainments, being versed in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Hebrew, and Syriac, as well as in astronomy, chronology, and mathematics. In his work on India he gives detailed information concerning the language and in uniuerso numero suo, propter dispositionem suam quain posuerunt, uolui patefacere de opera quod fit per eas aliquid quod esset leuius discentibus, si deus uoluerit.” [Boncompagni, Trattati d'Aritmetica, Rome, 1857.] Discussed by F. Woepcke, Sur Vintroduction de Varith- mAtique indienne en Occident, Rome, 1859. 1 Thus in a commentary by'All ibn Abi Bekr ibn al-Jamal al-Ansar! al-Mekkl on a treatise on gobar arithmetic (explained later) called Al- mursliidah, found by Woepcke in Paris (Propagation, p. 6G), there is mentioned the fact that there are “nine Indian figures” and “a sec- ond kind of Indian figures . . . although these are the figures of the gobar writing.” So in a commentary by Hosein ibn Mohammed al- Mahalll (died in 1756) on the Mokhtasar fi’ilm el-hisah (Extract from Arithmetic) by 'Abdalqadir ibn 'All al-Sakhawi (died c. 1000) it is re- lated that “ the preface treats of the forms of the figures of Hindu signs, such as were established by the Hindu nation.” [Woepcke, Propagation, p. 63.] 2 See also Woepcke, Propagation, p. 505. The origin is discussed at much length by G. R. Kaye, “Notes on Indian Mathematics. Arith- metical Notation,” Journ. and Proc. of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, Vol. Ill, 1907, p. 489. 3 Alberuni's India, Arabic version, London, 1887; English transla- tion, ibid., 1888. 4 Chronology of Ancient Nations, London, 1879. Arabic and English versions, by C. E. Sachau.