Memoria technical & Hisab al-jummal Under The Mughals

Abstract

"The credit for advancement in arithmetic, algebra and geometry goes entirely to the Muslim intellectuals and mathematicians. Much before the breakthrough in which Muslims invented 'zero' every civilization was dependent on the use of alphabets. These alphabets had numerical values. The use of alphabets for writing sums remained in vogue for a very long time but this was a very cumbersome and tedious method and often caused confusion. With the invention of 'zero' revolution was brought about. Before this invention Muslims too depended on their alphabets i.e. abjad and they too had numerical values. Islamic architecture, almost throughout the Islamic world, never allowed the old system to die. Rather a new phase was initiated by which the dates of the construction of the monuments were concealed in pieces of poetry and were inscribed on the facades and salient places of the buildings. The system is known as tarikh or the chronograms. Not much research has been done on this very engrossing and interesting aspect of Islamic culture in general and of Islamic architecture in particular. This short article focuses on how the dates were construed for monuments, and how they were concealed in meaningful couplets or ruba'is which eulogized the monument as well as its builder."