3. MUSLIM CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE

~ 122 ~ Philip K. Hitti writes: AI Khwarizmi, writing in the first half of the ninth century, was the exponent of the use of numerals, including the zero, in preference to letters. These numerals he called Hindi, indicating their Indian origin. His work on the Hindu method of calculation was translated into Latin by Adelard of Bath in the twelfth century and as De numero indico has survived, whereas the Arabic original has been lost. 56 In ancient times Roman numerals were in general use in Europe. In this system, letters were used to express numbers, a method adopted by the Greeks and some other ancient nations, and later by the Romans, who used the seven letters— M.D.C.L.X.V.I—in various combinations. For instance the figure 88 would be written as LXXXVIII. This was a cumbersome method and made calculation extremely difficult. The Europeans, however, regarded the Roman numerals as holy—a gift from the gods. As a result, they failed to revise their thinking in this matter. Regarding non-holy numerals as holy was the