Severus Sebokht (575 - 667)

[KALKI]

THAT our common numerals are of Hindu origin seems to

be a well-established fact,* and that Europe received them

from the Arabs seems equally certain, but how and when these

numerals reached the Arabs is a question that has never been

satisfactorily answered. It is the object of the present article

to call the attention of students of the history of mathematics

to newly discovered evidencef showing that the Hindu

numerals were known to and justly appreciated by the Syrian

writer Severus Sebokht who lived in the second half of the

seventh century; that is, about a hundred years before the

date of the first definite trace that we have hitherto had of

the introduction of the system into Bagdad. J It will also be

shown, on the basis of such information as is available respecting

his life and works, that Sebokht was in the most

favorable position for getting information of this kind, and

that he furthermore had in his possession the most powerful

means for the propagating of such knowledge.

Severus Sebokht of Nisibis, bearing the title of bishop,

lived in the convent of Kenneshre on the Euphrates! in the

time of the patriarch Athanasius Gammala (who died in 631)

and his successor John.|| He distinguished himself in the

studies of philosophy, mathematics, and theology, and in his

time the convent of Kenneshre became the chief seat of Greek

learning in western Syria. Of his astronomical and geograph-

* Smith and Karpinski, The Hindu-Arabic Numerals, Boston, 1911.

f By the French orientalist M. F. Nau in the Journal Asiatique, series 10,

vol. 16 (1910).

J Smith and Karpinski, The Hindu-Arabic Numerals, p. 92.

§ W. Wright, Short History of Syriac Literature, London, 1894, pp.

137-139.

|| Sebokht took part, together with the Jacobite patriarch Theodorus,

in a public dispute against the Maronites in the year 659. We have also a

letter written by him in the year 665. From these details we may conclude

that he flourished in the beginning of the second half of the seventh century.

(M. F. Nau, in the Journal Asiatique, series 9, vol. 13, p. 60.)

368 NEW LIGHT ON OUR NUMERALS. [May,

ical works there are a few fragments in a manuscript now in

the British Museum.* These fragments consider such questions

as whether the heaven surrounds the earth in the form

of a wheel or of a sphere; the habitable and uninhabitable

portions of the earth; the measurement of the heaven, the

earth, and the space between them; and the motion of the sun

and the moon. His treatise on the plane astrolabe was

published with a French translation by M. F. Nau in the

Journal Asiatique, series 9, volume 13. Sebokht also wrote a

short treatise on eclipses, in which he ridicules the then accepted

belief in a celestial dragon as the cause of all such

phenomena.!

But the most interesting of Sebokht's writings for the student

of history is undoubtedly a fragment of a manuscript^ published

by M. F. Nau, in the Journal Asiatique (series 10, volume

16, page 225) in which he directly refers to the Hindu numerals.

He seems to have been hurt by the arrogance of certain Greek

scholars who looked down on the Syrians, and in defending

the latter he claims for them the invention of astronomy.

He asserts the fact that the Greeks were merely the pupils of

the Chaldeans of Babylon, and he claims that these same

Chaldeans were the very Syrians whom his opponents condemn.

He closes his argument by saying that science is

universal and is accessible to any nation or to any individual

who takes the pains to search for it. It is not therefore a

monopoly of the Greeks, but is international.

It is in this connection that he mentions the Hindus by way

of illustration, using the following words: " I will omit all

discussion of the science of the Hindus, a people not the same

as the Syrians; their subtle discoveries in this science of

astronomy, discoveries that are more ingenious than those of

the Greeks and the Babylonians; their valuable methods of

calculation; and their computing that surpasses description.

I wish only to say that this computation is done by means of

nine signs. If those who believe, because they speak Greek,

that they have reached the limits of science should know these

things they would be convinced that there are also others

who know something." This fragment clearly shows that

not only did Sebokht know something of the numerals, but

* Add. 14, 538, pp. 153-155.

f See Notes d'Astronome Syrienne, Journal Asiatique, series 10, vol. 16

(1910).

Ï Ms., Syriac, Paris No. 346.

1917.] NEW LIGHT ON OUR NUMERALS. 369

that he understood their full significance, and may even have

known the zero as Rabbi ben Esra did, in spite of the fact

that he, too, speaks of nine numerals. There are two questions

that may immediately arise: (1) How could Sebokht

have obtained any information about the Hindu numerals?

and (2) What are the chances that Sebokht was instrumental

in introducing the numerals to the Arabian scholars?

The first of these questions may be answered very easily.

Nisibis, the place where Severus lived, was the chief city* of

Mygdonia, a small district in the northeast part of Mesopotamia.

It was situated in a rich and fruitful country, was

long the center of a very extensive trade, and was the great

northern emporium for the merchandise of the east and the

west. Since the exchange of goods is always accompanied

by the exchange of ideas, it is only reasonable to surmise that

the different systems of numeration were known in Nisibis,

where they could hardly escape the attention of a man like

Sebokht, who would surely have been looking for just such

information.

The second question is more difficult to answer. It may

be said, however, that the weight of the evidence is in favor of

Sebokht's work being at least one of the agencies by means of

which the knowledge of the numerals was transmitted to the

Arabs. He was the head of his convent and occupied a commanding

position in the literature of his country. He had

many pupils, one of whom, Athanasius of Balad,f was the

patriarch of the Jacobites, while such others as Jacob of EdessaJ

and probably George, Bishop of the Arab Tribes,§ were well

known as translators and polygraphers. We may be certain

that the knowledge of the numerals possessed on the banks

of the Euphrates by Severus was transmitted by him to his

numerous pupils and through them to other scholars all over

Syria. Since we know that Syrian scholars were employed by

the caliphs as translators and educators, || it would be only

natural that these Syrians should impart to the Arabs, among

other facts relating to the sciences, the knowledge of the Hindu

numerals.


COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.


* See Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography,

f W. Wright, Short History of Syriae Literature, pp. 154-155.

Î Ibid., pp. 141-154.

§ Ibid., pp. 156-159; M. F. Nau in the Journal Asiatique, series 10,

vol. 16.