nde in
omnes pene gentes fluxit.... Numerandi artem a Chaldeis esse profectam: qui
dum scribunt, a dextra incipiunt, et in leuam progrediuntur." [_De arte
supputandi_, London, 1522, fol. B, 3.] Gemma Frisius, the great continental
rival of Recorde, had the same idea: "Primum autem appellamus dexterum
locum, eo quod haec ars vel a Chaldaeis, vel ab Hebraeis ortum habere
credatur, qui etiam eo ordine scribunt"; but this refers more evidently to
the Arabic numerals. [_Arithmeticae practicae methodvs facilis_, Antwerp,
1540, fol. 4 of the 1563 ed.] Sacrobosco (c. 1225) mentions the same thing.
Even the modern Jewish writers claim that one of their scholars,
M[=a]sh[=a]ll[=a]h (c. 800), introduced them to the Mohammedan world. [C.
Levias, _The Jewish Encyclopedia_, New York, 1905, Vol. IX, p. 348.]

[4] "... & que esto fu trouato di fare da gli Arabi con diece figure." [_La
prima parte del general trattato di nvmeri, et misvre_, Venice, 1556, fol.
9 of the 1592 edition.]

[5] "Vom welchen Arabischen auch disz Kunst entsprungen ist." [_Ain nerv
geordnet Rechenbiechlin_, Augsburg, 1514, fol. 13 of the 1531 edition. The
printer used the letters _rv_ for _w_ in "new" in the first edition, as he
had no _w_ of the proper font.]

[6] Among them Glareanus: "Characteres simplices sunt nouem significatiui,
ab Indis usque, siue Chaldaeis asciti .1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9. Est item unus .0
circulus, qui nihil significat." [_De VI. Arithmeticae practicae
speciebvs_, Paris, 1539, fol. 9 of the 1543 edition.]

[7] "Barbarische oder gemeine Ziffern." [Anonymous, _Das Einmahl Eins cum
notis variorum_, Dresden, 1703, p. 3.] So Vossius (_De universae matheseos
natura et constitutione liber_, Amsterdam, 1650, p. 34) calls them
"Barbaras numeri notas." The word at that time was possibly synonymous with
Arabic.

[8] His full name was `Ab[=u] `Abdall[=a]h Mo[h.]ammed ibn M[=u]s[=a]
al-Khow[=a]razm[=i]. He was born in Khow[=a]rezm, "the lowlands," the
country about the present Khiva and bordering on the Oxus, and lived at
Bagdad under the caliph al-M[=a]m[=u]n. He died probably between 220 and
230 of the Mohammedan era, that is, between 835 and 845 A.D., although some
put the date as early as 812. The best account of this great scholar may be
found in an article by C. Nallino, "Al-[H)]uw[=a]rizm[=i]" in the _Atti
della R. Accad. dei Lincei_, Rome, 1896. See also _Verhandlungen des 5.
Congresses der Orientalisten_, Berlin, 1882, Vol. II, p. 19; W. Spitt