Where Do Arabic Numerals Come From? The Story of 1, 2, 3 From India to the World

In much of the Arab East, people write numbers like this: ١ ٢ ٣, and call them “Arabic numbers”, while calling 1, 2, 3 “English numbers”. The irony is that the rest of the world calls 1, 2, 3 “Arabic numerals”! So what’s the story?

It started in India

These numerals trace back to India. Early forms of some digits appear in Indian Brahmi inscriptions from around the 3rd century BCE.

But the bigger breakthrough wasn’t the shapes; it was the decimal place-value system with zero, where a digit’s value depends on its position, so the 2 in 20 means something different from the 2 in 200. In 628 CE, the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta set out rules for calculating with zero as a number.

The Arabs adopt and develop the numerals

In the Abbasid era, Baghdad was a global centre of science and translation, and Indian knowledge of arithmetic and astronomy reached it.

Enter Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (about 780–850 CE), who wrote a book around 825 CE on calculating with the Indian numerals. When it was translated into Latin, his name was written “Algoritmi”, and from that name came the word “algorithm”, the same word we use in programming today.

His other book, The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing (al-jabr wa’l-muqabala), gave us the word “algebra”.

Did you know? The English word “zero” comes from the Arabic word “sifr” (empty), which passed into Latin as “zephirum”, then Italian, then English. “Cipher” comes from “sifr” too.

Two branches: Eastern and Western

As the numerals spread through the Islamic world, they developed into two forms:

Type	Shapes	Where they were used
Eastern Arabic numerals (also called Indian)	٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩	The Arab East, with slightly different forms in Persian and Urdu
Ghubar (Western Arabic) numerals	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9	North Africa and al-Andalus; they evolved into the digits used worldwide today

They were called “ghubar” (dust) numerals because calculators worked on boards covered with dust or sand.

So both forms have roots in Arab-Islamic civilisation, and it isn’t accurate to call 1, 2, 3 “English”.

The journey to Europe

The ghubar numerals travelled from al-Andalus and North Africa into Europe. One of their most famous champions was Leonardo of Pisa, better known as Fibonacci, who learned arithmetic in the city of Béjaïa in Algeria, where his father worked. In 1202 he wrote Liber Abaci (The Book of Calculation) to show Europeans the advantages of these numerals.

The switch wasn’t quick: Roman numerals stayed in use for centuries, but the spread of printing in the 15th century helped the new numerals take hold.

Why was zero a revolution?

Try writing the year 2026 in Roman numerals: MMXXVI. Now try multiplying it by 37! Roman numerals have no zero and no place value, which makes arithmetic very awkward.

Place value with zero made calculation easy, paving the way for modern mathematics, accounting and science, and later for computers, which run entirely on numbers.

A fun fact: which way numbers are written

Although Arabic is written from right to left, numbers are written with the largest place value on the left, just as in European languages. The year two thousand and twenty-six is written ٢٠٢٦ or 2026 either way.

Frequently asked questions

Why do scholars call them “Hindu-Arabic numerals”?

Because the name gives credit to both civilisations: India, which created the system, and the Arabs, who developed it and carried it to the world.

Who invented zero?

Several ancient civilisations, such as the Babylonians and the Maya, used symbols for an “empty place”. But treating zero as a number with its own arithmetic rules developed in India, then spread through Arab and Muslim scholars.

Key takeaway

The numerals the world uses today were born in India, developed and passed on by Arab and Muslim scholars, and reached Europe through al-Andalus and North Africa. Whether you write ١٢٣ or 123, you’re using a shared heritage in which Arab civilisation played a major part.