Arabic Numerals

In a work in Arabic, by Ahmad ben Abubekr bin Wahshih, on Ancient Alphabets, published in the original, and accompanied with an English translation, by Von Hammer, your correspondent on the subject of Arabic numerals will find that these numerals were not invented as arbitrary signs, and borrowed for various alphabets; but that they are actually taken from an Indian alphabet of nine characters, the remaining letters being made up at each decimal by repeating the nine characters, with one or two dots. The English Preface states that this alphabet is still in use in India, not merely as a repres…