Eastern Arabic numerals
symbol used to represent numbers in the Eastern Arabic numeral system (or Arabic-Indic)
The Eastern Arabic numerals, also called Indo-Arabic numerals, or Arabic–Indic numerals, as designated by Unicode, are the symbols used to represent numerical digits in conjunction with the Arabic script in the countries of the Mashriq (the east of the Arab world, including the Arabian Peninsula), and the variants in other countries that use the Persian numerals in greater Iran and Asia.
The early Hindu–Arabic numeral system used a variety of shapes. It is unknown when the Western Arabic numeral shapes diverged from those of Eastern Arabic numerals. The Western digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9 are clearly related, but the origins of 6, 7 and 8 are obscure.
Origin
The numeral system originates from an ancient Indian numeral system, which was reintroduced during the Islamic Golden Age in the book On the Calculation with Hindic Numerals written by the Persian mathematician and engineer al-Khwarizmi, whose name was Latinized as Algoritmi.
Other names
These numbers are known as ʾarqām mašriqiyya (أَرْقَام مَشْرِقِيَّة) or ʾarqām hindiyya (أَرْقَام هِنْدِيَّة) in Arabic. They are sometimes also called Indic numerals or Arabic–Indic numerals in English. However, that is sometimes discouraged as it can lead to confusion with Devanagari numerals, used in Brahmic scripts of the Indian subcontinent.
Numerals
Each numeral in the Persian variant has a different Unicode point even if it looks identical to the Eastern Arabic numeral counterpart. However, the variants used with Urdu and other languages of South Asia are not encoded separately from the Persian variants.
The public source identifies “Eastern Arabic numerals” as symbol used to represent numbers in the Eastern Arabic numeral system (or Arabic-Indic). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Eastern, Arabic and numerals.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Eastern Arabic numerals”, the useful work is to connect “symbol used to represent numbers in the Eastern Arabic numeral system (or Arabic-Indic)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q61744. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Eastern Arabic numerals”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Eastern Arabic numerals primary sources, Eastern Arabic numerals archive and Eastern research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Eastern Arabic numerals”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Eastern Arabic numerals” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.