ScriptLookup

Arabic

العربية
Arab Right-to-left Living Abjad Middle Eastern
Sample Text
مرحبا بالعالم

Sample Characters

؀ ؁ ؂ ؃ ؄ ؅ ؆ ؇ ؈ ؉ ؊ ؋ ، ؍ ؎ ؏ ؐ ؑ ؒ ؓ ؔ ؕ ؖ ؗ ؘ ؙ ؚ ؛ ؜ ؝ ؞ ؟ ؠ ء آ أ ؤ إ ئ ا ب ة ت ث ج ح خ د

First 48 characters from Arabic (U+0600–U+06FF)

About Arabic

The Arabic script is the second most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries and is the primary script of Islam, used to write the Quran. It is a right-to-left cursive script derived from the Nabataean script, which itself descended from Phoenician. Beyond Arabic, the script is used to write Persian, Urdu, Pashto, Uyghur, and dozens of other languages.

Arabic script is an abjad, meaning it primarily writes consonants, with vowels represented by optional diacritical marks (harakat). The script has 28 letters, each of which takes a different form depending on its position within a word (isolated, initial, medial, or final).

Data sourced from the ISO 15924 registry, Unicode CLDR, and the Unicode Character Database.

Script Family & Lineage

Ancestor Chain
Phoenician › Imperial Aramaic › Nabataean › Arabic

Languages Using Arabic 60

Algerian Arabic Arabic العربية Bakhtiari Baluchi بلۆچی Beja Brahui Central Kurdish کوردیی ناوەندی Comorian Egyptian Arabic Gilaki Hausa Kashmiri کٲشُر Kazakh қазақ тілі Khowar Kyrgyz кыргызча Malay Melayu Mazanderani مازرونی Moroccan Arabic Najdi Arabic Northern Luri لۊری شومالی Pashto پښتو Persian فارسی Sindhi سنڌي Southern Kurdish کوردی خوارگ Tachelhit ⵜⴰⵛⵍⵃⵉⵜ Tajik тоҷикӣ Torwali توروالی Tunisian Arabic Turkmen türkmen dili Urdu اردو Uyghur ئۇيغۇرچە Uzbek o‘zbek Western Balochi بلوچی (رخشانی) Western Panjabi Zoroastrian Dari apc العامية apd bft cja dcc fia gjk gju grr haz hnd hno kvx kxp lki luz mey mfa mvy mzb prd rmt skr سرائیکی wni zdj

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of writing system is Arabic?
Arabic is an Abjad. Abjads write consonants only; vowels are absent or shown by optional diacritics.
What direction does Arabic read?
Arabic is written Right-to-left, meaning text flows from right to left. Words and sentences begin on the right side of the page.
How many languages use the Arabic script?
60 languages use Arabic according to Unicode CLDR data. Together these languages are spoken by approximately 291M people worldwide.
When was the Arabic script created?
The Arabic script originated around 400 CE.
Does Arabic have uppercase and lowercase letters?
Arabic does not have separate uppercase and lowercase forms. Letters are written in a connected, cursive style. Vowels can be marked with optional diacritics but are often omitted in everyday text.

Compare Arabic With Another Script

Direction, characters, languages — side by side.

Key Facts

ISO Code
Arab
ISO Number
160
Script Type
Abjad
Direction
Right-to-left
Status
Living
Region
Middle Eastern
Characters
1,413
Introduced
400 CE
Languages
60
Total Speakers
~291M

Unicode Ranges

  • Arabic
    U+0600–U+06FF
  • Arabic Supplement
    U+0750–U+077F
  • Arabic Extended-B
    U+0870–U+089F
  • Arabic Extended-A
    U+08A0–U+08FF
  • Arabic Presentation Forms-A
    U+FB50–U+FDFF
  • Arabic Presentation Forms-B
    U+FE70–U+FEFC
  • Rumi Numeral Symbols
    U+10E60–U+10E7E
  • Arabic Extended-C
    U+10EC2–U+10EFF
  • Arabic Mathematical Alphabetic Symbols
    U+1EE00–U+1EEF1

Script Properties

Has Case
No
Cursive
Yes
Vowels
optional

Official Use In

SA EG DZ MA IQ SY JO LB LY TN AE KW BH QA OM YE SD SO MR KM DJ ER TD NG ML SN GM GN SL PK AF IR ID MY BI

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