From: Marco Cimarosti
Message: 230
Date: 2001-06-07
>My understanding, coming from a professor of Arabic in Cairo, is that Arabsthe
>(or Egyptians, at least) say that the numerals they use are called
>"hindi"--ie, "Indian"--in Arabic. Granted, however, he was unable to
>explain why Europeans' digits are called "Arabic" and why Arabs don't use
>Arabic numerals.
>
>Also, both sets of glyphs are used throughout the Arab world, not just in
>Egypt.
>
>As for the change from LTR Indic to RTL Arabic to LTR European scripts, I
>tend to doubt it played much part in changing the glyphs, considering that
>Arabs still write their numbers LTR.
>
>Jeff
>
>
>>> Today's European digits like 0, 1, 2, and 3 are actually closer to
>>> the original Hindu glyphs from 1000 years ago than to true Arabic
>>> numerals.
>>
>> I think that the early (Italian? Spanish?) mathematicians who adopted
>> "Arabic" digits actually used the Arabic glyphsduring
>
>> I wondered too whether these glyph had undergone 45 degree rotations
>> their travel from LTR Indic scripts through RTL Arabic script to--
>>LTR European
>> scripts.
>>
>> _ Marco
>>
>>