Abjad numerals

Abjad order

The Abjad order of the Arabic alphabet has two slightly different variants. The Arabic abjad order is not a simple historical continuation of the earlier north Semitic alphabetic order, since it has a position corresponding to the Aramaic letter samekh / semkat ס, yet no letter of the Arabic alphabet historically derives from that letter.

In the most common Mashriqi abjad sequence, loss of he was compensated for by the split of he ש into two independent Arabic letters, ش (ar) and ﺱ (ar), which moved up to take the place of he.

The Mashriqi (common) abjad sequence, read from right to left, is:

This is commonly vocalized as follows: :*ar. Another vocalization is: :*ar

In the Maghrebian abjad sequence (quoted in apparently earliest authorities and considered older), loss of he was compensated for by the split of he צ into two independent Arabic letters, ض (ar) and ص (ar), which moved up to take the place of he.

The Maghrebian abjad sequence, read from right to left, is:

which can be vocalized as: :*ar

Another vocalization is: :*ar

;Competing order Modern dictionaries and other reference books use the newer ar (هجائي) / ar (أَلِفْبَائِي) and more common order, which partially groups letters together by similarity of shape, and is never used as numerals.

The common ar sequence, read from right to left, is:

Persian uses a slightly different order, in which و comes before ه instead of after it.

In the Maghrebian ar / ar order (replaced by the Mashriqi order), the sequence is:

In Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani's encyclopædia Kitāb al-Iklīl min akhbār al-Yaman wa-ansāb Ḥimyar (کتاب الإكليل من أخبار اليمن وأنساب حمير), the letter sequence (from right to left) is:

Uses of the Abjad system

Before the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, the abjad as numbers were used for all mathematical purposes. In modern Arabic, they are primarily used for numbering outlines, items in lists, and points of information. Equivalent to English, "A.", "B.", and "C." (or, rarer, Roman numerals: I, II, III, IV), in Arabic, thus "أ", then "ب", then "ج", not the first three letters of the modern ar order.

Like Roman numerals, there is no representation of zero and there are no fractions. By convention, the numbers are written largest first (larger to smaller, going right to left). Reversing the order indicates multiplication, so for example is 2000 while is 1002. (Contrast this with Roman numerals, where reversing the order indicates subtraction, e.g. IV = 5 - 1 = 4.)

The abjad numbers are also used to assign numerical values to Arabic words for purposes of numerology. The common Islamic phrase بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ar ('In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most compassionate' – see Basmala) has a numeric value of 786 (from a letter-by-letter cumulative value of 2+60+40+1+30+30+5+1+30+200+8+40+50+1+30+200+8+10+40). The name Allāh الله by itself has the value 66 (1+30+30+5).

Letter values==

In common abjad order:

Notice that some letters appear in their initial form and others in a riqaa-like form, with the alif having a different shape.

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In Maghrebian Abjad order:

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For four Persian letters these values are used:

Similar systems

The Abjad numerals are equivalent to the earlier Hebrew numerals up to 400. The Hebrew numeral system is known as Gematria and is used in Kabbalistic texts and numerology. Like the Abjad order, it is used in modern times for numbering outlines and points of information, including the first six days of the week. The Greek numerals differ in a number of ways from the Abjad ones (for instance in the Greek alphabet there is no equivalent for ص, ar). The Greek language system of letters-as-numbers is called isopsephy. In modern times the old 27-letter alphabet of this system also continues to be used for numbering lists.

References

Sources

References

1. Stephen Chrisomalis. (2010). ["Numerical Notation: A Comparative History"]({{google books URL). Cambridge University Press.
2. "ترتيب المداخل والبطاقات في القوائم والفهارس الموضوعية".