page_title: Hindu–Arabic numeral system
section_title: Spread of the Western Arabic variant
hierarchical_section_title: Hindu–Arabic numeral system / History / Spread of the Western Arabic variant
caption_attribution_description: English: I made this photo myself. Its now in the Public Domain
context_page_description: The Hindu–Arabic numeral system or Indo-Arabic numeral system is a positional decimal numeral system, and is the most common system for the symbolic representation of numbers in the world.
  It was invented between the 1st and 4th centuries by Indian mathematicians. The system was adopted in Arabic mathematics by the 9th century. Influential were the books of Al-Khwārizmī and Al-Kindi. The system later spread to medieval Europe by the High Middle Ages.
  The system is based upon ten glyphs. The symbols used to represent the system are in principle independent of the system itself. The glyphs in actual use are descended from Brahmi numerals and have split into various typographical variants since the Middle Ages.
  These symbol sets can be divided into three main families: Western Arabic numerals used in the Greater Maghreb and in Europe, Eastern Arabic numerals used in the Middle East, and the Indian numerals in various scripts used in the Indian subcontinent.
context_section_description: The   "Western Arabic" numerals as they were in common use in Europe since the Baroque period have secondarily found worldwide use together with the Latin alphabet, and even significantly beyond the contemporary spread of the Latin alphabet, intruding into the writing systems in regions where other variants of the Hindu–Arabic numerals had been in use, but also in conjunction with Chinese and Japanese writing (see Chinese numerals, Japanese numerals).
caption: An Arab telephone keypad with both the Western "Arabic numerals" and the Arabic "Arabic–Indic numerals" variants.
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