한
← All rivers
River of knowledge

The River of Zero & Decimal

How did a mark for an empty place become an engine for calculation?

A networked history: positional notation and zero grew across centuries in India; Brahmagupta systematized arithmetic rules in 628; Arabic mathematical texts, trade, and several translation routes carried related practices onward. Modern calculation inherits this current alongside distinct regional traditions.

628–15004 city-to-city segments

Read the current

What changed between the cities?

  1. 1

    700–825

    translation

    BhillamalaBaghdad

    Zero from India to Islamic World

    Indian place-value calculation and arithmetic with zero reached scholars in Baghdad through multiple translations, astronomical tables, and commercial practices rather than one linear handoff.

    Arabic translations of Indian astronomical and arithmetic materials; al-Khwarizmi’s writing on Hindu calculation
    Place this segment on the map
  2. 2

    900–1050

    scholars and schools

    BaghdadCordoba

    Decimal Numerals to Al-Andalus

    Hindu-Arabic numerals and calculating practices circulated through texts, teaching, and commerce across North Africa and al-Andalus; this was not the direct travel of one author’s book alone.

    Arabic arithmetic treatises, astronomical tables, teaching, and commercial calculation
    Place this segment on the map
  3. 3

    1100–1200

    translation

    CordobaToledo

    Toledo School of Translators

    Arabic mathematics and science were translated into Latin in twelfth-century Toledo.

    Latin Algoritmi de numero Indorum and the adoption of Hindu-Arabic numerals
    Place this segment on the map
  4. 4

    1202–1300

    scholars and schools

    BugiaPisa

    Fibonacci Brings Decimal to Italy

    After encountering several calculating traditions in Bugia and across the Mediterranean, Fibonacci wrote *Liber Abaci* in Pisa in 1202 and argued for Hindu-Arabic numerals to European commercial readers. It was influential, not Europe’s single starting point.

    Liber Abaci (1202, written in Pisa) and methods of commercial calculation
    Place this segment on the map

How to read the lines

Each line is an editorial route through problems, texts, and practices. It does not imply one book moving in a straight line, a sole invention, or identical adoption everywhere.