[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by avandonk

We westerners are deluded if we think we 'invented' western thinking!
our number system is Arabic!

Bert

Indian actually. Quote:
The oldest known text to use a decimal place-value system, including a zero, is the Jain text from India entitled the Lokavibhâga, dated 458 CE. This text uses Sanskrit numeral words for the digits, with words such as the Sanskrit word for void for zero. The first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the indubitable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero, a small circle, appears on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuja Temple at Gwalior in India, dated 876 CE.

The Arabic numerals and the positional number system were introduced to the Islamic civilization by Al-Khwarizmi. Al-Khwarizmi's book on arithmetic synthesized Greek and Hindu knowledge and also contained his own fundamental contribution to mathematics and science including an explanation of the use of zero.