May be one of the best if not the best book about the history
of numbers is the book:

"Les chiffres ou l'histoire d'une grande invention"
by Georges Ifrah
and of wich probably there is an English translation.

Althought Marco has already explaned it:
Digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7, 8, 9 are evolved graphs from the
taken from the *occidental* arab numbers also called
"numbers ghobar"; ghobar means sand that was used
to write on it the numbers for doing operations. And arab
graphs were taken from the hindi number's graphs, i don't know
axactly from wich alphabet. In fact our digit's graphs have
a resemblance with the diferent digit's graphs in the several
alphabets used today in India.
But, as you may know, the indian alphabets have evolved from
the aramean alphabet, then after all the digit's graphs may have
some relationship with the semitic alphabet.

I like to name them "indian numbers".

Yours,
mariano

..........

> > How did the term "Arabic numerals" come to be used for digits
> > that aren't, well, Arabic?
>
> As others explained before, Europeans got them by the Arabians.
>
> I think that the first Europeans who started using them were

mathematicians

> who studied and translated Arabic mathematic books.
>
> This is also the reason why many terms related to calculus are from

Arabic:

> zero (from as-sifr), algebra (from "Al-Jabr...": the first words from the
> title of a famous Arabic book about calculus), algorithm (from
> al-Kuwarithmi: the author of that book)...
>
> > Is this term still being taught? Just in America or
> > elsewhere? Is there a better term?
>
> I think yes. It is the same term we normally use in, e.g., Italian ("cifre
> arabe", "numeri arabi").
>
> "Arabic numerals" sounds charming to me, and also has the advantage to
> remind us that not everything was invented by Europeans.
>
> In contexts where confusion may arise with the digits actually used in
> Arabic countries, "European numerals" or "Western numerals" can go.
>
> > Is there a traditional name for the group of digits starting
> > with U+0660?
>
> Arabians themselves call them "Hindi numbers".
>
> This too is a charming term, because it tells us the first part of the
> story: Arabians themselves got the decimal digits from a computing system
> invented by Indian merchants.
>
> But, also in this case, confusion may arise with the digits normally used

in

> the Devanagari script.
>
> _ Marco
>
>
>
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