Abjadiya

Abjadiya ( Arabic. أبجدية letters. Alphabet ), Hisab al-Jamal ( Arabic. حساب الجمل ) - a system for designating numbers using Arabic letters and the associated ability to find the total numerical content of words written in Arabic letters.

Historically, the letters of the Arabic alphabet were arranged in the same order as in the Phoenician alphabet , from which the Arabic originates. In this case, 6 letters that did not have a match in the Phoenician alphabet are placed at the end:

This order is called “abjad,” according to the first four letters: alif , ba , jim , dal . To memorize this sequence, the mnemonic pseudo-phrase “Abjad, hawaz, hutiy, kalaman, saafas, karashat, sahaz, dazag” is used. Before the transition to Indian ("Arabic") numbers , letters were used to designate numbers, and their numerical value corresponded to their order in abjad. Soon after the transition to Indian numbers, the alphabet order was changed to modern.

However, the ability to turn words into numbers, and numbers into words, remains in demand. Abjadiya is directly related to the birth of such a branch of mathematics as algebra and is widely used in Sufi hermeneutics .

In the poem “Leili and Majnun” Nizami cites the abjadiy of his name “Nizami” ( Persian نظامی = 50 + 900 + 1 + 40 + 10), calling the number 1001:

I’m given the “Nizami” nickname,
There are a thousand names in it and one more.
The designation of these good letters
More reliable than the walls of granite serfs.
( Translation by T. Streshneva )