NOURNEWS - The Siyaq script, the ancient culture that has its roots in the history of pre-Islamic centuries in Iran. From that time until 1930 AD, the principles of its rules and basics were fully known and were taught to those interested in educational classes. During the mentioned time, the figures and written numbers required by different classes of society were written in any form and manner in a Siyaq style, which was called numerical Siyaq, but during the reign of the first Pahlavi, teaching this writing method was removed from the Iranian school curriculum. And mathematical figures and numbers, called geometric numbers, replaced the numerical Siyaq, and the Siyaq writing style was gradually forgotten, so much so that today it is rare to see older people who are familiar with the numerical Siyaq and able to read and write.
However, in recent decades, the number of interested researchers in the country and Iranologists and Orientalists around the world who need historical and basic research of documents is increasing and despite the abundance of written documents and writings, it is not possible for them to read the Siyaq figures of these documents. They can refer to the books written on this subject or benefit from Professors who specialize in this field.
Cognition of Siyaq
Siyaq is a method of cryptographic numbering, to record and know the figures of cash (money) and goods (weights of goods) that in the past in history in Iran and the surrounding lands and all current incomes and expenses in society with these figures It was recorded by individuals, businesses, merchants, institutions and agents in the courts of account. Auditors and accountants supervised the income and expenditure of these revenues and expenses under the supervision of accountants. Siyaq teaching in ancient schools has been common throughout history, and Siyaq specialists and prominent accountants have all graduated from these schools.
Historical roots of Siyaq
During the Sassanid Empire, government accountants wrote the income and expenditure of different regions of Iran with cryptographic figures in which the roots of historical research and contemporary Siyaq figures are hidden in them. After the defeat of the Sassanids era, the Arab rulers, who were mostly at war and spread their religion and beliefs, left the accounts of the country's taxes and expenses in the hands of the Iranians in the same way as before because there was no knowledge in the Arab bureaucracy to be able to translate tax offices from Persian to Arabic.
But this translation was one of the demands of the Arab rulers until the time of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the fifth Umayyad caliph (during the reign of 65-86 AH) in 84 AH. It came to fruition because it was decided to translate the tax offices from Persian to Arabic.
There were problems with this because there were words and phrases in the Persian tax offices that were impossible to translate. Eventually, this request was made under the supervision of Iranian scribes, and they translated the codes and words based on the Sassanid period into Arabic, using numerical arithmetic writings, and this translation was completed until 124 AH It lasted for forty years.
It was this translation that during the caliphate of the tenth caliph, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (during the caliphate of 105-125 AH) became the founder of the modern Siyaq script, which has its roots in counting Arabic numeral letters. However, after this year, the courts of Khorasan and Isfahan were still in the hands of Zoroastrian accountants who calculated tax books in the Sassanid style.
Historical sources write in this regard: In the time of Abd al- Malik bin Marwan, the fifth Umayyad Caliph, his famous minister Abd al- Hamid bin Yahya Farsi, he was known as Abd al- Hamid, a writer, who was the head of the Caliphate Secretariat and introduced the style of writing Pahlavi Persian letters into Arabic. Abd al- Hamid, the best scholar of his time, is the inventor of the science of office and court Siyaq. He also wrote a treatise on chess, Abd al- Hamid in 132 AH was killed by the last Umayyad caliph.
In general, the recording of calculations and revenues was one of the basic needs of the country's economy, which was recorded in government offices. These calculations were established and continued from the beginning of the second century AH in the style of the offices of the Iranians of the Sassanid period, but with Arabic numeral arithmetic figures (Siyaq numbers). The book of the history of Wassaf in the early eighth century AH records the tribute of the Islamic countries during the caliphate of Haroun al-Rasheed, the fifth Abbasid caliph with the same cipher numbers (Siyaq numbers) in the fourth volume of his book as the tribute of the countries.
* Dr. Seyedhossein Hosseiniseddiq is a faculty member at the Islamic Azad University
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