The History of the Arabic Alphabet

The Evolution of the Phoenician Script into Modern Latin and Arabic

The origin of the Arabic script goes back to an alphabet created by the Phoenicians who were living on the coastal area of Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. Since the Phoenicians were business traders sailing the Mediterranean, the alphabet influenced all Mediterranean regions.

Funenary Inscription from an-Namara (AD 328)

The Phoenician script evolved in several directions, with one branch developing into Greek and later the modern Latin alphabet. The other evolved into Aramaic, which branched out again from there into Modern Hebrew and Nabataean. Several writing systems including the Arabic script and the various Arabic Scripts, all derive from Nabataean, which was in use from the 2nd century BC in what is modern day Jordan.

Development of the Arabic Script through time

You’ll notice that Early Arabic does not contain any dots (1), whereas modern Arabic does. These dots were a later addition to the Arabic alphabet to help the multitudes of Arabic learners who were unable to differentiate between the different sounds (Early Arabic had 15 distinct letter-shapes for 28 sounds)

Later still, vowel marks and the Hamza were introduced (2), beginning sometime in the latter half of the seventh century. Initially, this was done by a system of red dots said to have been commissioned by an Umayyad governor of Iraq. However, this was easily confusable with the letter-distinguishing dots (3), so 100 years later, the modern system was adopted.