Abjad in the Arabic Tradition: What Is Hisab al-Jummal?

Try explaining "Abjad numerology" to an Arabic-speaking reader and you may well get a different name back: hisab al-jummal. The word "abjad" is known and used in Arabic too, but the classical name for the method of counting with letters is this one. In this article we read the system in its own language, through the eyes of the Arabic tradition: what its name tells us, why the letters are memorised with eight odd-looking words instead of the familiar alphabet order, why the eastern and western Islamic worlds disagree on a handful of letters, and where these numbers were actually used over the centuries.

The name of a system: حساب الجمل

In Arabic script it is حساب الجمل, transliterated ḥisāb al-jummal. "Hisab" means calculation. Different explanations are offered for the origin of "jummal"; it is commonly linked to the root of jumla, meaning "total" or "sum". That reading fits how the system works: each letter of a word is turned into a number, the numbers are added up, and the word is reduced to a single total.

In Ottoman Turkish the same term appears as hesâb-ı cümel. In everyday speech, though, the system is named after the first word of its mnemonic sequence: abjad. In short, "abjad" is the start of a sequence, while "hisab al-jummal" is the name of that sequence used as a method of calculation.

Eight words to remember

In hisab al-jummal the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are memorised in eight words. These words have no dictionary meaning; they are simply patterns that keep the letters in order. The table shows each word, its letters and their values in the eastern (Mashriqi) tradition:

Look closely and the logic reveals itself. The first nine letters (from ا to ط) are the units, the next nine (from ي to ص) the tens, the following nine (from ق to ظ) the hundreds, and the final غ stands alone for 1000. With 28 letters every place value from 1 to 1000 is covered. Add up the eight word totals and the whole alphabet comes to 5995.

One more detail: the last two words, ثخذ and ضظغ, are not at the end by chance. The first 22 letters of the sequence follow the letter order of much older Semitic alphabets (the order seen in Aramaic and Hebrew scripts). The six sounds specific to Arabic were added to the end of that old order, which is why their values are so large.

Abjad order vs. alphabet order

The alphabet an Arabic-speaking child learns today is not the abjad order. The order used in schools and dictionaries, which groups letters by similar shape, is called the hijā'ī order: ا ب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن ه و ي. Here letters that differ only by their dots (such as ب ت ث or ج ح خ) sit side by side. It makes reading easier to learn, but it has nothing to do with the letters' numerical values.

So two orders live side by side in Arabic writing: one for learning to read, one for counting. Mixing them up is one of the most common causes of mistakes in Abjad calculation. For example, ت is third in the hija'i order, yet its Abjad value is 400, because what decides it is its place in the word قرشت.

East and West: Mashriqi and Maghribi values

Hisab al-jummal was not applied identically everywhere in the Islamic world. The system that prevailed in the east, and that passed into the Turkish, Persian and Indian traditions, is the Mashriqi (eastern) system; the table above belongs to it. In North Africa and al-Andalus a variant known as the Maghribi (western) system became widespread.

The two systems agree on most letters. The difference comes from six letters changing places. In the Maghribi tradition the second half of the mnemonic runs صعفض قرست ثخذ ظغش, and those six letters take these values:

• ص: 90 in the east, 60 in the west
• ض: 800 in the east, 90 in the west
• س: 60 in the east, 300 in the west
• ظ: 900 in the east, 800 in the west
• غ: 1000 in the east, 900 in the west
• ش: 300 in the east, 1000 in the west

So when you read a number given in an older North African text, you need to know which system it assumes. The system used in the Ottoman heritage, and the one behind every calculation on our site, is the Mashriqi system.

The disjoined letters of the Qur'an and numbers

A question that often comes up with hisab al-jummal concerns the ḥurūf muqaṭṭa'a, the disjoined letters that open certain suras: الم, الر, حم, يس, طه and others. They stand at the beginning of 29 suras and, once repetitions are removed, consist of 14 different letters.

Some later authors calculated the Abjad values of these letters and built interpretations on the numbers. Arithmetically, of course, every letter group has a total; الم, for example, comes to 1 + 30 + 40 = 71. Mainstream exegesis, however, is cautious here. Most commentators report various views on the disjoined letters while stressing that their exact meaning is known to Allah (Allahu a'lam). Numerical readings of these letters should therefore be seen not as certainty but as an interpretive attempt within the Abjad tradition.

In manuscripts, astronomical tables and dates

Hisab al-jummal was not only a way of finding the value of names; both before and after Indian-derived numerals spread, Arabic letters served as a way of writing numbers. The clearest example is astronomy. In zijs written in Arabic and Persian (astronomical tables giving the positions of celestial bodies), degrees and minutes were often written with letters, and it is normal to find Abjad letters instead of digits in the table columns.

Manuscripts show a similar use: in some copies quire or page sequences, chapter numbers and quantities are marked with letters. Then there is the art of the chronogram: Arabic, Persian and Ottoman poets wrote lines whose letter values add up to the year of an event, and such lines can be found on inscriptions and gravestones. To decode one, the same eight words are all you need.

Quick questions

Are hisab al-jummal and Abjad the same thing?

Yes, they are two names for one system. "Hisab al-jummal" names the method; "abjad" names the mnemonic sequence and the calculation associated with it.

Can I calculate with the hija'i order?

No. Values are assigned only by the abjad order; using the hija'i order gives wrong results.

Which system should I use?

The Mashriqi system, the one used in the Turkish and Ottoman tradition and behind the established tables and name calculations.

From the system to your name

Anyone who knows the eight words can find the total value of a name. But in the tradition, reading a name does not end with the total: which letters dominate, which element and star the total points to, and what picture your name draws together with your mother's name each call for a separate assessment. If you are curious where your own name stands in this picture, you can order your personal analysis right away.

Note: This article introduces the Abjad and hisab al-jummal tradition from a cultural and historical perspective. Abjad interpretations are based on tradition; they are not religious rulings, certain knowledge or guarantees about the future.