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Islamic Imperialism in IndiaThey do not use the letter of their alphabet for numerical notation, as we use the Arabic letters inthe order of Hebrew alphabet… The numerical signs which we use are derived from the finestforms of the Hindu signs…The Arabs, too, stop with the thousand, which is certainly the mostcorrect and the most natural thing to do... Those, however, who go beyond the thousand in theirnumeral system, are the Hindus, at least in their arithmetical technical terms, which have beeneither freely invented or derived according to certain etymologies, whilst in others both methodsare blended together. They extend the names of the orders of numbers until the eighteenth orderfor religious reasons, the mathematicians being assisted by the grammarians with all kinds ofetymologies. 468According to Alberuni, Indian learning, such as the fables of Kalila and Dimna and books on medicine,including the famous Charaka, came to the Arab world, through either direct translation from Sanskrit intoArabic or through first translation into Persian, and then, from Persian into Arabic. Sachau also thinks that theinflux of knowledge from India to Baghdad took place in two different phases of which, he writes:As Sindh was under the actual rule of Khalif Mansur (753–74), there came embassies from thatpart of India to Baghdad, and among them scholars, who brought along with them two books, theBrahmasiddhanta of Brahmagupta, and his Khandakhadyaka (Arkanda). With the help of thesepundits, Alfazari, perhaps also Yakub ibn Tarik, translated them. Both works have been largelyused, and have exercised a great influence. It was on this occasion that the Arabs first becameacquainted with a scientific system of astronomy. They learned from Brahmagupta earlier thanfrom Ptolemy. 469Sachau adds that there was another influx of Hindu learning into the Arab world during the reign of CaliphHarun al-Rashid (r. 786–808). The famous ministerial family of Barmak from Balkh, who had outwardlyconverted to Islam but never abandoned their ancestral crypto-Buddhist tradition after generations,…sent scholars to India, there to study medicine and pharmacology. Besides, they engagedHindu scholars to come to Baghdad, made them the chief physicians of their hospitals, andordered them to translate from Sanskrit into Arabic books on medicine, pharmacology,toxicology, philosophy, astrology, and other subjects. Still in later centuries, Muslim scholarssometimes traveled for the same purposes as the emissaries of the Barmak, e.g. Almuwaffuk, notlong before Alberuni’s time… 470Moreover, the Arabs also translated Indian works on many other subjects, including on snakes, poison,veterinary art, logic and philosophy, ethics, politics, and science of war. ‘Many Arab authors took up thesubjects communicated to them by the Hindus and worked them out in original compositions, commentariesand extracts. A favorite subject of theirs was Indian mathematics, the knowledge of which became far spreadby the publications of Alkindi and many others,’ adds Sachau. 471The eleventh-century Spanish Muslim scholar Said al-Andalusi—in his book, The Categories ofNations, on world science—acknowledges India very positively and describes it as a major center for science,mathematics and culture. The treatise recognizes India as the first nation to have cultivated science andpraises Indians for their wisdom, ability in all the branches of knowledge and for making useful and rareinventions. It adds:468. Ibid, p. 160–61469. Ibid, p. XXXIII470. Ibid, p. XXXIII-XXXIV471. Ibid, p. XXXVI154