İstanbul Aydın Üniversitesi Dergisi (Oct 2018)
ARABIC WRITING SYSTEM
Abstract
The importance of writing is quite high in the history of any society that has reached a certain amount of civilization. It is very important to know its history and the phases. Because Arabic writing is the most widespread writing in the world after Latin. In this article we have prepared with the same mindset, the adventure of Arabic writing have been briefly discussed; concise information are presented about the birth or Arabic writing, the first written monuments that are found, its phases of growth and types of Arabic writings. Arabs have used a certain kind of writing called “müsned”, developed in the Southern Arabia. Then, müsned had been replaced by the Arabic writing that is used to this day. This new writing had been derived from adjacent Nabat writing. And it is agreed upon the fact that Arabic writing was derived from the Nabat writings, used by the Nabataeans who reigned in Northern Arabia and on the Sinai peninsula. The oldest found written monument of Arabic language is a tombstone found in 328 A.D. which is thought to be written with Nabataeans letters. Today, the examination of the pre-Islamic tablets and the tablets belonging to the first Islamic century suggest that the Arabic writing is derived from the Nabataean waritings, and also even an advanced continuation of it. It is also true that in the first years of Islam there were who knew how to write, even if so few. But with Islam, writing has advanced towards a totally new and bright phase. Since it was necessary to write the Quran to teach about Islam, writing was also encouraged by the Prophet which makes the Quran first written work in the history of Arabs. Arabic writing had achieved significant improvement compared to other types of writing, due to the precautions and accentuation activities to ensure the Quran was read and understood correctly, thus new types of writings had been developed besides Cufic and Naskh writings, such as the Maghreb writing in the northern Africa.
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