Indic Siyaq Number One

It compresses Arabic number words into a ledger sign.

A monogram is a compact design made from a word’s letters. This South Asian sign condenses the Arabic word for “number”; the Siyaq system gives it the value one. Abjad, an Arabic letter-number system, assigned values to letters; Siyaq used dedicated signs.

The wider system appears in a Baghdad revenue account dated 918–19. Its shorthand could hide sums from unauthorized readers. Iranian-style Siyaq bookkeeping entered Mughal government offices in 1584; the Indic form was common by the 17th century and continued into the mid-20th century. Northern and Deccani (southern) styles differed in some larger-number forms.