No, the Arabs didn't invent it. al-Khwarzimi, a Persian scholar, introduced it into the Arab world with his book: "On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals" aroun

No, the Arabs didn't invent it. al-Khwarzimi, a Persian scholar, introduced it into the Arab world with his book: "On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals" around 820 CE. The Hindu Bakhshali manuscript carbon-dated to between 200-400 CE, uses the "shunya" or zero symbol both as a placeholder in the decimal place-value system, and as a numeral involved in computations.