[boris]

"What great accomplishment has any Arab country ever achieved?"

Well, giving credit where credit is due--a few centuries back they invented the zero (0) and we still use 'arabic numerals' instead of Roman ones.

For a while there they were decent astronomers and 'alchemists'. Many star names derive from arabic, for example. Also the roots of algebra (the word itself has an arabic origin). Other than that, not much, especially in the last 500 years or so.

--Boris

[Ajnin]

Do Arabs now use a different set of numbers. Except for 0, 1 and 9 the numbers look completely different than the ones we use now.