Editing Arabic numerals (section)

=== Origin ===
[[File:The Brahmi numeral system and its descendants.png|alt=|thumb|Evolution of Indian numerals into Arabic numerals and their adoption in Europe]]

Positional decimal notation including a [[0|zero]] symbol was [[History of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system|developed in India]], using symbols visually distinct from those that would eventually enter into international use. As the concept spread, the sets of symbols used in different regions diverged over time.

The immediate ancestors of the digits now commonly called "Arabic numerals" were introduced to Europe in the 10th century by Arabic speakers of Spain and North Africa, with digits at the time in wide use from Libya to Morocco. In the east from Egypt to Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabs were using the [[Eastern Arabic numerals]] or "Mashriki" numerals: <span dir=ltr style="unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr">٠, ١, ٢, ٣, ٤, ٥, ٦, ٧, ٨, ٩</span>.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Burnett |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AG2XBCmxYcUC |title=From China to Paris: 2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical Ideas |year=2002 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |isbn=978-3-515-08223-5 |editor-last=Dold-Samplonius |editor-first=Yvonne |pages=237–288 |editor-last2=Van Dalen |editor-first2=Benno |editor-last3=Dauben |editor-first3=Joseph |editor-last4=Folkerts |editor-first4=Menso}}</ref>

[[Alī ibn Ahmad al-Nasawī|Al-Nasawi]] wrote in the early 11th century that mathematicians had not agreed on the form of the numerals, but most of them had agreed to train themselves with the forms now known as Eastern Arabic numerals.<ref>{{harvnb|Kunitzsch|2003|p=7}}: {{lang|fr|"Les personnes qui se sont occupées de la science du calcul n'ont pas été d'accord sur une partie des formes de ces neuf signes; mais la plupart d'entre elles sont convenues de les former comme il suit."}}</ref> The oldest specimens of the written numerals available are from Egypt and date to 873–874&nbsp;AD. They show three forms of the numeral "2" and two forms of the numeral "3", and these variations indicate the divergence between what later became known as the Eastern Arabic numerals and the Western Arabic numerals.{{sfn|Kunitzsch|2003|p=5}} The Western Arabic numerals came to be used in the [[Maghreb]] and [[Al-Andalus]] from the 10th century onward.<ref>{{harvnb|Kunitzsch|2003|pp=12–13}}: "While specimens of Western Arabic numerals from the early period—the tenth to thirteenth centuries—are still not available, we know at least that Hindu reckoning (called ''ḥisāb al-ghubār'') was known in the West from the 10th century onward..."</ref> Some amount of consistency in the Western Arabic numeral forms endured from the 10th century, found in a Latin manuscript of [[Isidore of Seville]]'s ''{{lang|la|[[Etymologiae]]}}'' from 976 and the Gerbertian abacus, into the 12th and 13th centuries, in early manuscripts of translations from the city of [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]].<ref name=":2" />

Calculations were originally performed using a dust board ({{tlit|ar|takht}}, Latin: {{lang|la|tabula}}), which involved writing symbols with a stylus and erasing them. The use of the dust board appears to have introduced a divergence in terminology as well: whereas the Hindu reckoning was called {{tlit|ar|ḥisāb al-hindī}} in the east, it was called {{tlit|ar|ḥisāb al-ghubār}} 'calculation with dust' in the west.{{sfn|Kunitzsch|2003|p=8}} The numerals themselves were referred to in the west as {{tlit|ar|ashkāl al‐ghubār}} 'dust figures' or {{tlit|ar|qalam al-ghubār}} 'dust letters'.{{sfn|Kunitzsch|2003|p=10}} [[Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi|Al-Uqlidisi]] later invented a system of calculations with ink and paper 'without board and erasing' ({{tlit|ar|bi-ghayr takht wa-lā maḥw bal bi-dawāt wa-qirṭās}}).{{sfn|Kunitzsch|2003|pp=7–8}}

A popular myth claims that the symbols were designed to indicate their numeric value through the number of angles they contained, but there is no contemporary evidence of this, and the myth is difficult to reconcile with any digits past 4.<ref name=ifrah>{{cite book |last1=Ifrah |first1=Georges |year=1998 |title=The universal history of numbers: from prehistory to the invention of the computer |translator-last=Bellos |translator-first=David |location=London |publisher=Harvill |isbn=978-1-860-46324-2 |pages=356–357}}</ref>
[[File:Houghton Typ 520.03.736 - Margarita philosophica.jpg|thumb|Etching published 1503 showing usage of Arabic numerals]]