Many know that figures which the European world uses today are called Arab. And not only figures, all system of calculation has such name. However origin they have not so Arab. This system of calculation in India was developed, and Arabs just "delivered" it on the West.
Before emergence of the Arab system of calculation many people used the figures similar to the Roman. Also their record was similar. 7 letters of the Latin alphabet were applied to designation of numbers by Romans: I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500, M = 1000. For example, number 323 in Roman looked as CCC XX III, and in Greek as HHH LJ III. It is obvious that a writing essence one, only symbols are various.
Such "alphabetic" expression of number was applied more than two thousand years, however these records were difficult by production of arithmetic actions, besides the difference of alphabets did not allow to lead calculations to the unified look, and therefore the idea of decimal signs was met very favourably.
Indian arabica coffee
On the Indian numeral system each class of figures was replaced with the only symbol, units, dozens, hundreds and so forth so appeared. Of course, this way was more convenient, but not faultless. The fact is that in this system of symbols there was no figure which could replace a class in which there were no signs. For example, the Roman number CCC III according to a new system was replaced with 32. However this number matters not 32, but 302. That is the class in which there were no symbols could not be replaced. And the figure position, in this case, is important not less, than its value. 0 was so invented. A symbol which designated "nothing". The invention of such system of calculation had the mass of conveniences as the smaller number of signs was used much, and calculations considerably became simpler. However Arabs not just copied the idea of Hindus, but contributed. Actually, the image of figures which people use every day is the Indian figures which were adapted to the Arab letter.
Adaptation of signs
The "real" Indian figures accurately correspond "face value" to number of corners in a figure, i.e. in an eight figure eight corners, in the four – 4. Arabs represented figures on stones therefore for economy of the place drew them sideways, figures were extended, and over time and got characteristic stylization of the Arab ligature. For example, images of figures 2 and 3 have alphabetic compliances in the Arab letter, only figures are written "to a height", and drop caps stretch across. And here figure 8 came in general from Latin. Such symbol designated the word "OCTO" that just and meant 8. By the way, the word "figure" came from Arab "сыфр" that means "zero". By and large, the name "Arab figures" has nothing in common with their origin, it is more likely a tribute to Arabs for promoting of the Indian system of calculation.