Arabic numerals in its entry in the "Oxford English Dictionary", which helps to distinguish it from "Arabic numerals" as the Eastern Arabic numerals. Alternative names are Western Arabic numerals, Western numerals, Hindu–Arabic numerals and Unicode calls them digits. The decimal Hindu–Arabic numeral system with zero was developed in India by around AD 700. The development was gradual, spanning several centuries, but the decisive step was probably provided by Brahmagupta's formulation of zero as a number in AD 628. The system was revolutionary by including zero in positional notation, thereby limiting the number of individual digits to ten. It is considered an important
Eastern Arabic numerals world, particularly in Iran and Afghanistan. In Arabic-speaking Asia as well as Egypt and Sudan both kinds of numerals are used alongside each other with Western Arabic numerals gaining more and more currency, now even in very traditional countries such as Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates almost exclusively use Western Arabic numerals. In Pakistan, Western Arabic numerals are more extensively used as a considerable majority of the population is anglophone. Eastern numerals still continue to see use in Urdu publications and newspapers, as well as sign boards. In North Africa (excluding Egypt and Sudan), only Western Arabic numerals are