Copy numpy array into part of another array

You can specify b[1:4, 1:4] to denote the part:

>>> import numpy as np
>>> a = np.arange(9)
>>> a = a.reshape((3, 3))
>>> b = np.zeros((5, 5))
>>> b[1:4, 1:4] = a
>>> b
array([[ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  0.,  1.,  2.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  3.,  4.,  5.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  6.,  7.,  8.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.]])

>>> b[1:4,1:4] = a + 1  # If you really meant `[1, 2, ..., 9]`
>>> b
array([[ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  1.,  2.,  3.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  4.,  5.,  6.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  7.,  8.,  9.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.]])