Arabic style Eastern Arabic numerals on a clock in the
Cairo Metro
The Eastern Arabic numerals (also called Arabic–Indic numerals and Arabic Eastern Numerals) are the symbols (٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩) used to represent the Hindu–Arabic numeral system in conjunction with the Arabic alphabet in the countries of the Arab east, and its variant in other countries.
Other names[edit]
These numbers are known as أرقام هندية ("Indian numbers") in Arabic. They are sometimes also called "Indic Numerals" in English.[1] However, this nomenclature is sometimes discouraged as it leads to confusion with the numerals used in the scripts of India[2] (see Indian numerals).
Numerals[edit]
There is substantial variation in usage of glyphs for the Eastern Arabic–Indic digits, especially for the digits four, five, and six.[3]
Each number in the Persian variant has a different unicode point even if it looks identical to the Eastern Arabic numeral counterpart.
Numbers are traditionally read with the smallest element first[citation needed] (e.g., "four-and-twenty" instead of "twenty-four") although in Modern Standard Arabic the order is: thousand-hundred-unit-decimal (e.g., 21353 is read: one and twenty thousand and three hundred and three and fifty). Written numerals are arranged with their lowest-value digit to the right, with higher value positions added to the left. This is identical to the arrangement used by Western texts using Western Arabic numerals, even though Arabic script is read from right to left. There is no conflict unless numerical layout is necessary, as is the case for arithmetic problems (as in simple addition or multiplication) and lists of numbers, which tend to be justified at the decimal point/comma.[4]
North Africa[edit]
In present-day North Africa, excluding Egypt and Sudan, Western Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are used; in medieval times, a slightly different set (from which, via Italy, Western "Arabic numerals" derive) was used.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
