Introduction of Arabic Numerals

Principal personages:
     Severus Sebokhut (died 667), philospher-scientist who refers to Hindu
             numerals.
     Al-Khowarizmi (780-c.850), author of a book on Hindu numerals.
     leonard of Pisa (Fibonacci, c. 1180-1250), European promoter of
               Arabic Numerals
     Menos follr of Bonisagus (died 1101), popularizer of Arabic numerals
           amongst the Order, wrote a famous tract.

"Arabic" numerals came westward through an arithmetic book written in the
eigth century in India and soon afterwards translated into Arabic. Muhammed
ibn-Ibrahim al-Fazari oin the second half of the eighth century made a
translation of the Hindu tablets that were included included in the Siddhanta,
a sebventh century Hindu treatise on Astronomy.

    The earliest known reference to Hindu numerals outside of India is given
by Bishop Severus Sebokhut of Nisibis, a philosphger who lived in a monsastery
on the banks of the Euphrates. Judging from a fragment of a manuscript of the
year 662, he was much impressed with the nine existing Hindu numerals.

     These numerals reached the monastic schools of Mesopotamia as early as
650. Before the time of Mohammed the Arabs had no numerals. It has been
asserted, though there are grounds for doubt, that a set of astronomical
tables was taken to Baghdad in 773 and translated from the Sanskrit into
Arabic at the command of the caliph. The translation is said to have been made
by al-Fazari about 773. Probably the numerals were known in Baghdad at that
time; however, they were certainly known by 825. Al-Khowarizmi, who lived
during the reign of XCaliph Al-Mamum (813-833), recognizing their value, wrote
a small book to explain their use. His writings were probably the main channel
through which the Hindu numerals became known in known in the west. This book
was later translated into Latin probably by Adelard of Bath (c 1120) with the
title Liber Algorismi de Nuumero Indorum. The oldest definately dated European
manuscript to contain the Hindu-Arabic numerals is the codex Vigilanus written
in the Albelda Cloister in Spain in 976. A Vatican Library manuscript of 1077
also contains the numerals, written similiar to modern symbols.

     How or when the numerals entered Europe is not known. Probably they were
carried in by travelers and traders of the Medi Leonard of Pisa (Fibonacci)
was the first great mathematician to advocate the adoption of the Arabic
notation. the learned classes readily accepted it, but the merchants and monks
in the monasteries adhered to the older forms as late as 1300. Even one
hundred years after the publication of Fibonacci's book the merchants of
Florence were forbidden to use notation in bookeeping.

With the contacts between the Order and the Arabic World it was only a matter
ofd time before numerals were introduced into the Order of Hermes.
In fact, as eartly as 900 AD these numerals appear in the lab notes
of some Magi of the Iberian and Roman tribunal, as well as the levant.
However, the known tomes of the Order do not have any reliable
occurences of Arabic numerals before the publication of Liber
Aligorismi de Magica in 1023 by Menos filius Libergia follower of
Bonisagus, a magus of the Iberian Tribunal.
Menos' book is remarkable in that it clearly explains and sets forth
guidelienes for using the Arabic Numeral in Hermetic magic and
lab work. The book was very popular and the idea caught on throughout
the Order. Today just about every Magi uses these numerals in
their work and finds their use most easy for magic. Of course,
Tribunals usually use the older Roman form for official declarations,
as do the more traditional of the Houses.
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