01OVERVIEW
Front Matter
SCRIPT · PROFILE
Arabic العربية
The script of the divine and the peak of calligraphy — 420 million users, where each letter flows into four forms.
Developed from Nabataean script around the 4th century AD, Arabic script writes the mother tongue of ~420 million people worldwide. As the language of the Quran, it is considered "divine script" in Islam, where calligraphy became the highest art form. Written right-to-left, the same letter takes up to 4 different forms depending on its position within a word — a uniquely sophisticated system.
1,600 Years of the Arabic Script
From desert inscriptions to the world's second script
300s
Out of Nabataea
Arabic branches from the cursive of Nabataean Aramaic.
600s
With the Quran
The script of revelation — the spread of Islam is the spread of the script.
700s
Dots and vowels
Diacritical dots and vowel marks disambiguate the letterforms.
900s
Proportioned calligraphy
Ibn Muqla's proportional theory measures every letter against the alif.
1928
Contraction
Türkiye switches to Latin — Turkish departs after four shared centuries.
1990s~
Digital RTL
The Unicode bidi algorithm makes right-to-left a citizen of the web.
02ARTIFACT
Primary Artifact
Birmingham Quran manuscript
c. 568–645 · Hijazi script · University of Birmingham
Full
Top
Bottom
— Hijazi script on parchment · among the oldest surviving Quran manuscripts
Carbon-dated in 2015 to the lifetime of (or just after) Prophet Muhammad. Two parchment leaves preserving parts of Surahs 18–20 in early Hijazi script — a rare specimen of the earliest Arabic writing.
04SPECIMEN
The Letters
Signs · Unicode · TypesSample GlyphsClick to copy
Unicode
Range 1U+0600–U+06FF
Range 2U+0750–U+077F
Range 3U+08A0–U+08FF
Total signs28
In Unicode396
Unicode Blocks
Glyph evolution
Form change over time
Loading evolution data…
Six calligraphic hands
The same letters in six bodies — the essence of Arabic calligraphy
ﻛﻮﻓﻲ
Kufic
Kufic
Angular and monumental — the hand of early Qurans and architecture
ﻧﺴﺦ
Naskh
Naskh
Literally "copying" — the standard of print body text today
ﺛﻠﺚ
Thuluth
Thuluth
The king of ornament — mosque inscriptions and Quran headings
ﻧﺴﺘﻌﻠﻴﻖ
Nastaliq
Nastaliq
Hanging curves — the body of Persian and Urdu poetry
ﺩﻳﻮﺍﻧﻲ
Diwani
Diwani
The Ottoman chancery hand — ornate interlacing that defied forgery
ﺭﻗﻌﺔ
Ruqah
Ruqah
The everyday hand — the default of handwriting across the Arab world
06MECHANICS
Reading Mechanics
Direction · Method↔
Direction
Right to Left (RTL)
Right to left. Letterforms change with position in the word (initial, medial, final, isolated).
α
System
Abjad
⌨
Input method
Automatic contextual shaping on input; Arabic keyboard layouts on Windows/macOS.
Keyboard layout
Standard IME · input chart
Arabic Keyboard (Windows)
Right-to-left input. Characters auto-change form by position.
ض
ص
ث
ق
ف
غ
ع
ه
خ
ح
ش
س
ي
ب
ل
ا
ت
ن
م
ك
ئ
ء
ؤ
ر
لا
ى
ة
و
ز
ظ
space
⌫
💡 Arabic letters auto-switch among 4 forms: initial, medial, final, isolated.
07LINEAGE
The Lineage
Family · DescendantsPhylogeny
Ancestors & descendants
Phylogeny
Related scripts
Ancestors · Descendants · Family
08REACH
In the World
Usage · ReachLanguages and users
Beyond Arabic — the languages that share one script
The Arabic script in numbers
Users · Rank · Forms
660M+
Users
#2
Rank
×4
Forms
Major collections
☪
Turkish & Islamic Arts Museum
Istanbul
🕌
Museum of Islamic Art
Doha
📖
Dar al-Kutub
Cairo
🏛
Institut du Monde Arabe
Paris
Living legacy
26+
Languages written
Beyond Arabic: Persian, Urdu, Pashto, Kurdish, Uyghur, and more
2021
UNESCO listing
Arabic calligraphy inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage
×4
Four forms per letter
Isolated, initial, medial, final — letterforms that flow with position
RTL
Bidirectional web
The driving case of the Unicode bidi algorithm, reshaping digital typesetting