Prefixed Siyaq Nine

This is the compound nine in Indic Siyaq, a historical South Asian accounting notation. Its signs abbreviate Arabic number words.

Text symbol

What 𞲫 means

It supplies the units value nine in a compound.

Regular 𞱹 is nine alone; 𞲫 is the units form in 11–19 and 21–99, written before the tens value.

What were raqm numbers used for?

Clerks used them for government and financial accounts.

Siyaq records survive from the early 10th century in New Persian (Persian in Arabic script). Persian scribes made shorthand by shortening Arabic number words; clerks had to learn its cursive signs. The wider system served administrations under Safavid, Ottoman and Mughal rule. In South Asia, raqm or rakam (“account”) appeared in revenue books. Large values also use lakh (100,000) and crore (10,000,000); unlike abjad, an older letter-number system, Siyaq has distinct number signs.

Part of the collection

𝋧

Ancient Number Systems

What it means when someone sends it to you

2 readings

Nineteen; this glyph supplies the units value.

Questions people ask

Why does 𞲫 show as a box on some devices?

Not every system ships a font for the Indic Siyaq Numbers block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.