The Hindu-Arabic Numerals by David Eugene Smith and Louis Charles Karpinski traces the origin and spread of the number system used throughout the modern world. The authors, distinguished historians of mathematics, follow the numerals from their roots in India, through their transmission by Arab scholars, to their eventual adoption in medieval and Renaissance Europe.
The book examines the development of the symbols, the crucial concept of place value, and the long process by which these numerals displaced older systems such as Roman numerals in commerce and learning. Drawing on manuscripts and early printed sources, it illuminates a pivotal chapter in the history of science and culture. Scholarly yet readable, the work remains a respected account of how the digits we now take for granted came to be universal.