Islam Creator of the Modern Age
3. Muslim Contribution to Science
~ 122 ~
Philip K. Hitti writes:
AI Khwarizmi, writing in the first half of the
ninth century, was the exponent of the use of
numerals, including the zero, in preference to
letters. These numerals he called Hindi,
indicating their Indian origin. His work on the
Hindu method of calculation was translated
into Latin by Adelard of Bath in the twelfth
century and as
De numero indico
has survived,
whereas the Arabic original has been lost.
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In ancient times Roman numerals were in general
use in Europe. In this system, letters were used to
express numbers, a method adopted by the Greeks
and some other ancient nations, and later by the
Romans,
who
used
the
seven
letters—
M.D.C.L.X.V.I—in various combinations. For
instance the figure 88 would be written as
LXXXVIII. This was a cumbersome method and
made
calculation
extremely
difficult.
The
Europeans, however, regarded the Roman numerals
as holy—a gift from the gods. As a result, they
failed to revise their thinking in this matter.
Regarding non-holy numerals as holy was the
