Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

14

INTRODUCTION.

This concurrent history of Arabic writers is also further confirmed by
the fact that the Arabians wrote their figures from left to right, after
the manner of the Hindus, but contrary to the order of their writing,
which was from right to left.
Under the reign of Almamun, Ptolemy's great work on astronomy
and arithmetic was translated into Arabic, with the title of Almagest,
a word formed from the Arabic article, and one of the words of
cvrraLtc 1tEyibTTr, the title of Ptolemy's work. The arithmetics of Diophantus were translated into Arabic by Buzjani, in the fourth century
of the H-egira, nearly two centuries after the Arabians had become
acquainted with the arithmetic and the astronomy of the Hindus.
Among the writers subsequent to Mohammed Ben Musa was
Abulfaraj, the author of a treatise on computation. He lived in the
twelfth century, and notices a work on numerical computation which
Mohammed Ben Musa amplified, and is described as " a most expeditious and concise method, and testifies the ingenuity and acuteness of the
Hindus."
Before the end of the eleventh century the Saracens had extended
their conquests along the northern parts of Africa, and at an earlier
period had established a flourishing kingdom in the southern provinces of Spain, which existed for upwards of seven centuries, until
the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1491, when Granada was
taken, and the Saracen power in Spain came to an end. During the
rule of the Saracens the arts and sciences of the East were cultivated
and promoted, and the schools of the learned in Spain were in high
repute in those early times.
In the latter part of the tenth century, Gerbert, a Benedictine
monk, of Aurillac in Auvergne, is reported to have travelled into
Spain, and there to have acquired a knowledge of the sciences of the
Saracens, and also of the Arabic numerals. He was without doubt
one of the remarkable men of his age, but how far he promoted or
assisted in the extension of the knowledge of the Arabic arithmetic is
not made out satisfactorily.
William of Malmesbury writes (De Gestis Anglorum) of Gerbert:
"Abacum certe primus a Saracenis rapiens, regulas dedit, quae a
sudantibus abacistis vix intelliguntur." Gerbert afterwards became
Archbishop of Rheims and of Ravenna, and in A.D. 999 was raised
to the Popedom under the title of Sylvester II. He died in the year
1003. It is not improbable that other persons in their travels, both in
Spain and in the East, acquired a knowledge of the Arabic numerals
long before the use of them became general in the west of Europe.
The intercourse of merchants in traffic, and of the hosts which, from
the west of Europe, joined in the expeditions to the Holy Land during
the Crusades, may also have afforded opportunities of gaining some
acquaintance with the arts and knowledge of the Saracens.
The Arabic numerals are said to have been found in manuscripts
of Spain of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It is probable that
much interesting information might be brought to light from any
remains of the manuscript literature of the Saracens in Spain during
these centuries. The Arabic numerals were certainly employed in
the astronomical tables made by Alphonsus X., King of Castile,
about A.D. 1252.
Leonardo of Pisa first made known from the Arabians the Hindu
alithmetic and algebra in Italy. A manuscript of Leonardo's treatise