The first sign that the Indian numerals were moving west comes from a source which predates the rise of the Arab nations. For example there were at least three different types of arithmetic used in Arab countries in the eleventh century: a system derived from counting on the fingers with the numerals written entirely in words, this finger-reckoning arithmetic was the system used for by the business community the sexagesimal system with numerals denoted by letters of the Arabic alphabet and the arithmetic of the Indian numerals and fractions with the decimal place-value system. Rather different number systems were used simultaneously in the Arabic world over a long period of time. There are other complications in the story, however, for it was not simply that the Arabs took over the Indian number system. Transmission to Europe came through this western Arabic route, coming into Europe first through Spain. By the western part of the Arabic world we mean the regions comprising mainly North Africa and Spain. The eastern and western parts of the Arabic world both saw separate developments of Indian numerals with relatively little interaction between the two. The story of this transmission is not, however, a simple one. However they were not transmitted directly from India to Europe but rather came first to the Arabic/Islamic peoples and from them to Europe. The Indian numerals discussed in our article on Indian numerals at THIS LINK form the basis of the European number systems which are now widely used.