Fluxus Editions

Abstract. For the past two centuries, scholars have debated the origin of Arabic script, the youngest of the Semitic scripts. While one camp pointed to Nabatean as the sure ancestor, another favored Syriac instead. By examining the each ancestor visually and historically, one finds evidence for each point of view. Is it reasonable to insist on a single ancestor for Arabic script? The historical examples of Proto-Sinaitic and Ugaritic scripts demonstrate that a single script can be shown to have features amalgamated from more than one source. Detailed examination of the features of early Arabic script leads us to conclude that both Nabatean and Syriac strongly influenced its development. Finally, we demonstrate that particular details of cursive linking in Arabic script replicate analogous behavior in Syriac.

References References in BIB How to cite How to cite in BIB

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@BOOK{bib54,
   AUTHOR = {Al-Baladhuri, Ahmad},
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   Accompanied with Annotations Geographic and Historic of the Kitâb Futuḥ Al-Buldân by
   F.C. Murgotten. Part II}},
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}

@INPROCEEDINGS{bib55,
   AUTHOR = {Briquel-Chatonnet, Françoise},
   EDITOR = {Déroche, François and Richard, Francis},
   TITLE = {{De l'araméen à l'arabe: quelques réflexions sur la genèse de l'écriture arabe}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Scribes et manu\-scrits du Moyen-Orient}},
   PUBLISHER = {Bibliothèque nationale de France},
   ADDRESS = {Paris},
   YEAR = {1997},
}

@BOOK{bib57,
   AUTHOR = {Grohmann, Adolph},
   TITLE = {{Arabische Paläographie}},
   PUBLISHER = {Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften},
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   VOLUME = {94},
}

@BOOK{bib58,
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   VOLUME = {43},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{bib59,
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   TITLE = {{Arabic Script}},
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   PUBLISHER = {Brill},
   ADDRESS = {Leiden},
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   VOLUME = {1},
   PAGES = {135--44},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{bib60,
   AUTHOR = {Gründler, Beatrice},
   EDITOR = {Edzard, Lutz and de Jong, Rudolf},
   TITLE = {{Arabic Alphabet: Origin}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics}},
   PUBLISHER = {Brill},
   ADDRESS = {Leiden, Boston},
   YEAR = {2006},
}

@ARTICLE{bib61,
   AUTHOR = {Healey, John F.},
   TITLE = {{The Early History of the Syriac Script—--a Reassessment}},
   JOURNAL = {Journal of Semitic Studies},
   YEAR = {2000},
   VOLUME = {45},
   PAGES = {55--68},
}

@ARTICLE{bib62,
   AUTHOR = {Kiraz, George},
   TITLE = {{Old Syriac Graphotactics}},
   JOURNAL = {Journal of Semitic Studies},
   YEAR = {2012},
   VOLUME = {57},
   PAGES = {231--264},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{bib63,
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}

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@INPROCEEDINGS{bib67,
   AUTHOR = {Salomon, Richard},
   TITLE = {{Some Principles and Patterns of Script Change}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{The Shape of Script: How and Why Writing Systems Change}},
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}

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}

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   AUTHOR = {Starcky, Jean},
   TITLE = {{Pétra et la Nabatène}},
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Kamal Mansour (2019), On the Origin of Arabic Script, in Proceedings of Graphemics in the 21st Century, Brest 2018 (Yannis Haralambous, Ed.), Brest: Fluxus Editions, 245–255

@INPROCEEDINGS{gla1-mans,
   AUTHOR = {Mansour, Kamal},
   EDITOR = {Haralambous, Yannis},
   TITLE = {{On the Origin of Arabic Script}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Proceedings of Graphemics in the 21st Century, Brest 2018}},
   PUBLISHER = {Fluxus Editions},
   ADDRESS = {Brest},
   YEAR = {2019},
   PAGES = {245--255},
   DOI = {https://doi.org/10.36824/2018-graf-mans},
}