Comments on: Never trust numbers in Arabic papers

By: Hana

Hana — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 10:08:37 +0000

For BD 32 million–they could at least air the world cup…It is a shame that football has become a sport of the elite-or at least a sport that only those who can afford over BD100 to subscribe to it can watch it…. What was the average basic salary for Bahrainis? BD 300?

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By: Don Cox

Don Cox — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 17:10:59 +0000

As Palestine and Egypt were in the Roman Empire until the year 616 (when the Persians drove them out), it does seem likely that the Roman number system would be in use there until the Indian system arrived. And it takes a long time for such systems to change over – look how the Americans are still not using the metric system for measurements.

Whatever was in use in Egypt would presumably also be in use in the Arabian peninsula. But different numbers were used for commerce and for science.

Joseph thinks the Indian numerals probably arrived in Baghdad in 773, when there was a diplomatic mission from Sind.

There was also a Babylonian system using 60 rather than 10 as the number base.

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By: mahmood

mahmood — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:47:02 +0000

Thanks Don, I’ll look it up. And of course you are correct, the numerals we use now as Arabic are actually Indian, and it is claimed that the Latin numerals in use today all over the world are the original Arabic ones; that’s why most newspapers toward the end of the 90s started adopting them again, against the “Indian” numbers which were used for so long before that… I’m not convinced, I hope the book you referred to covers this topic.

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By: Don Cox

Don Cox — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 17:23:25 +0000

Actually they are called “Arabic numbers” because the Europeans learned them from the Arabs, but the Arabs in turn got them from India.

There is a brilliant book called “The Crest of the Peacock” by G G Joseph which covers this and all the history of maths outside Europe. I think you would find it interesting.

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By: alfanan

alfanan — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:48:08 +0000

I agree with you. Quark is the WORST DTP program, ever.

I had to install it on our designer’s machine at work because the publishing company we work with would not accept the files in any other format; and let me tell you… It is not something I want to install on my computer.

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