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| ابتثجحخدذرزسشصضطظعغفقكلمنهوي |
Arabic script |
TheAbjad numerals, also calledHisab al-Jummal (Arabic:حِسَاب ٱلْجُمَّل,ḥisāb al-jummal), are a decimalalphabetic numeral system/alphanumeric code, in which the 28 letters of theArabic alphabet are assigned numerical values. They have been used in theArabic-speaking world since before the eighth century whenpositionalArabic numerals were adopted.[1] In modern Arabic, the wordʾabjadīyah (أَبْجَدِيَّة) means 'alphabet' in general.
In the Abjad system, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet,ʾalif, is used to represent 1; the second letter,bāʾ, 2, up to 9. Letters then represent the first nine intervals of 10s and those of the 100s:yāʾ for 10,kāf for 20,qāf for 100, ending with 1000.
The wordʾabjad (أبجد) itself derives from the first four letters (A-B-G-D) of the Semitic alphabet, including theAramaic alphabet,Hebrew alphabet,Phoenician alphabet, and other scripts forSemitic languages. These alphabets contained only 22 letters, stopping attaw, numerically equivalent to 400. The Arabic Abjad system continues at this point with letters not found in other alphabets:thāʾ = 500,khāʾ = 600,dhāl = 700, etc. Abjad numerals in Arabic are similar to the alphanumeric codes ofHebrewgematria andGreekisopsephy.
The Abjad order of theArabic 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 lettersamekh / semkatס, yet no letter of the Arabic alphabet historically derives from that letter.
In the most commonMashriqi abjad sequence, loss ofsamekh was compensated for by the split ofshinש into two independent Arabic letters,ش (shīn) andﺱ (sīn), which moved up to take the place ofsamekh.
The Mashriqi (common) abjad sequence, read from right to left, is:
| غ | ظ | ض | ذ | خ | ث | ت | ش | ر | ق | ص | ف | ع | س | ن | م | ل | ك | ي | ط | ح | ز | و | ه | د | ج | ب | أ |
| gh | ẓ | ḍ | dh | kh | th | t | sh | r | q | ṣ | f | ʿ | s | n | m | l | k | y | ṭ | ḥ | z | w/u | h | d | j | b | ʾ |
This is commonly vocalized as follows:
Another vocalization is:
In the Maghrebian abjad sequence (quoted in apparently earliest authorities and considered older[2]), loss ofsamekh was compensated for by the split oftsadeצ into two independent Arabic letters,ض (ḍad) andص (ṣad), which moved up to take the place ofsamekh.
The Maghrebian abjad sequence, read from right to left, is:[2][3][unreliable source?]
| ش | غ | ظ | ذ | خ | ث | ت | س | ر | ق | ض | ف | ع | ص | ن | م | ل | ك | ي | ط | ح | ز | و | ه | د | ج | ب | أ |
| sh | gh | ẓ | dh | kh | th | t | s | r | q | ḍ | f | ʿ | ṣ | n | m | l | k | y | ṭ | ḥ | z | w/u | h | d | j | b | ʾ |
which can be vocalized as:
Another vocalization is:
Modern dictionaries and other reference books use the newerhijāʾī (هجائي) /alifbāʾī (أَلِفْبَائِي) and more common order, which partially groups letters together by similarity of shape, and is never used as numerals.
The commonhijāʾī sequence, read from right to left, is:
| ي | و | ه | ن | م | ل | ك | ق | ف | غ | ع | ظ | ط | ض | ص | ش | س | ز | ر | ذ | د | خ | ح | ج | ث | ت | ب | أ |
| y | w/u | h | n | m | l | k | q | f | gh | ʿ | ẓ | ṭ | ḍ | ṣ | sh | s | z | r | dh | d | kh | ḥ | j | th | t | b | ʾ |
Persian uses a slightly differentorder, in which و comes before ه instead of after it.
In the Maghrebianhijāʾī /alifbāʾī order (replaced by theMashriqi order[3][unreliable source?]), the sequence is:[2]
| ي | و | ه | ش | س | ق | ف | غ | ع | ض | ص | ن | م | ل | ك | ظ | ط | ز | ر | ذ | د | خ | ح | ج | ث | ت | ب | أ |
| y | w/u | h | sh | s | q | f | gh | ʿ | ḍ | ṣ | n | m | l | k | ẓ | ṭ | z | r | dh | d | kh | ḥ | j | th | t | b | ʾ |
InAbu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani's encyclopædiaKitāb al-Iklīl min akhbār al-Yaman wa-ansāb Ḥimyar (کتاب الإكليل من أخبار اليمن وأنساب حمير), the letter sequence (from right to left) is:[4]
| ي | ش | س | ه | ز | ر | ق | ف | ظ | ط | غ | ع | ض | ص | ن | و | م | ل | ك | ذ | د | خ | ح | ج | ث | ت | ب | أ |
| y | sh | s | h | z | r | q | f | ẓ | ṭ | gh | ʿ | ḍ | ṣ | n | w/u | m | l | k | dh | d | kh | ḥ | j | th | t | b | ʾ |
Before theHindu–Arabic numeral system, the abjad as numbers were used for all mathematical purposes. In modern Arabic, they are primarily used for numberingoutlines, 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 modernhijāʼī order.
The abjad numbers are also used to assign numerical values to Arabic words for purposes ofnumerology. The common Islamic phraseبسم الله الرحمن الرحيمbismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm ('In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most compassionate' – seeBasmala) 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 nameAllāhالله by itself has the value 66 (1+30+30+5).
In common abjad order:[2]
Notice that some letters appear in their initial form and others in ariqaa-like form, with thealif having a different shape.
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In Maghrebian Abjad order:[2]
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For fourPersian letters these values are used:
| Value | Letter | Name | Trans- literation | Has numerical value of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | پ | pe | p | ب |
| 3 | چـ | che | ch orč | جـ |
| 7 | ژ | zhe | zh orž | ز |
| 20 | گ | gâf | g | ک |
The Abjad numerals are equivalent to the earlierHebrew numerals up to 400. The Hebrew numeral system is known asGematria and is used inKabbalistic 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. TheGreek numerals differ in a number of ways from the Abjad ones (for instance in theGreek alphabet there is no equivalent forص,ṣād). TheGreek language system of letters-as-numbers is calledisopsephy. In modern times the old 27-letter alphabet of this system also continues to be used for numbering lists.
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