More can be written, but for a start, there are a couple of discussions under FAQ section "History of Mathematics":

• "What caused Arabic Numerals to be accepted world wide, but alphabets developed such a wide variety?" by /u/Jooseman
• '"Incredibly it wasn’t until the 15th Century that zero, along with all the other Arabic numbers, was finally accepted." If this is true, what number system did people use before the 15th century?' by /u/RTarcher (providing some English evidence) and /u/rusoved (Cyrillic numbers).

But the FAQ has no comprehensive discussion on the transition, so this is really not to discourage discussion. More questions, data and debate are welcome.