“De Sacy and Caussin de Perceval concur in fixing the date of the introduction of Arabic writing into Mecca at A.D. 560 (Mém. de l’Acad., vol. 1. p. 306; C. de Perc., vol. i. p. 294.) The chief authority is contained in a tradition given by Ibn Khallicân, that the Arabic system was invented by Morâmir at Anbar, whence it spread to Hira. It was thence, shortly after its invention, introduced into Mecca by Harb, father of Abû Sofiân, the great opponent of Mahomet. (Ibn Khallicân, by Slane, vol. ii. p. 284.) Other traditions give a later date; but M. C. de Perceval reconciles the discrepancy by referring them rather to the subsequent arrival of some zealous and successful teacher than to the first introduction of the art (vol. i. p. 295). I would observe that either the above traditions are erroneous, or that some sort of writing other than Arabic must have been known long before the date specified, i.e. A.D. 560. Abd al Muttalib is described as writing from Mecca to his maternal relatives at Medîna for help, in his younger days, i.e. about A.D. 520. And still farther back, in the middle of the fifth century, Cussei (Quṣaiy) addressed a written demand of a similar tenor to his brother in Arabia Petræa. (Kâtib al Wâckidi, 11½; Tabari, 18, 28.)
“The Himyar or Musnad writing is said by Ibn Khallicân to have been confined to Yemen; but the verses quoted by C. de Perceval (vol. i. p. 295) would seem to imply that it had at one period been known and used by the Meccans, and was in fact supplanted by the Arabic. The Syriac and Hebrew were also known and probably extensively used in Medîna and the northern parts of Arabia from a remote period.
“In fine, whatever the system employed may have been, it is evident that writing of some sort was known and practised at Mecca long before A.D. 560. At all events, the frequent notices of written papers leave no room to doubt that Arabic writing was well known, and not uncommonly practised, there in Mahomet’s early days. I cannot think, with Weil, that any great ‘want of writing materials’ could have been felt, even ‘by the poorer Moslems in the early days of Islam.’ (Mohammed, p. 350.) Reeds and palm-leaves would never be wanting.” (Muir’s Mahomet, Intro., p. viii.)
The intimate connection of the Arabic alphabet, as it is now in use, with the Hebrew, or rather Phœnician alphabet, is shown not only by the form of the letters themselves, but by their more ancient numerical arrangement, known by the name of Abjad, and described under that head on page 3 of the present work. This arrangement, it will be remembered, is contained in the six meaningless words:—
| أَبْجَدْ | هَوَّزْ | حُطّى | كَلَمَنْ | سَعْفَصْ | قَرَشَتْ | ثَخَذْ | ضَظَغْ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | 1000 |
The first six of these words correspond to the Hebrew alphabet, the last two consist of the letters peculiar to Arabic, and it will be seen that the words abjad, hawwaz, and ḥut̤t̤ī (as we transcribe them according to our system of transliteration), express the nine units, together with ten, kalaman and saʿfaṣ, the tens from twenty to ninety, and qarashat, s̤ak͟haẕ, and ẓaz̤ag͟h, the hundreds together with one thousand.
The present arrangement of the Arabic alphabet, in the form which the letters take as finals, is the following:—
Finals.
| Order. | Reduced Order. | Separate. | Joined. | Transliteration. | ||
| 1 | 1 | ا | ـا | a (i, u) | ||
| 2 |  | 2 |  | ب | ـب | b |
| 3 | ت | ـت | t | |||
| 4 | ث | ـث | s̤ | |||
| 5 | | 3 | | ج | ـج | j |
| 6 | ح | ـح | ḥ | |||
| 7 | خ | ـخ | k͟h | |||
| 8 |  | 4 |  | د | ـد | d |
| 9 | ذ | ـذ | ẕ | |||
| 10 | | 5 | | ر | ـر | r |
| 11 | ز | ـز | z | |||
| 12 | | 6 | | س | ـس | s |
| 13 | ش | ـش | sh | |||
| 14 | | 7 | | ص | ـص | ṣ |
| 15 | ض | ـض | ẓ | |||
| 16 | | 8 | | ط | ـط | t̤ |
| 17 | ظ | ـظ | z̤ | |||
| 18 | | 9 | | ع | ـع | ʿ |
| 19 | غ | ـغ | g͟h | |||
| 20 | | 10 | | ف | ـف | f |
| 21 | ق | ـق | q | |||
| 22 | 11 | ك | ـك | k | ||
| 23 | 12 | ل | ـل | l | ||
| 24 | 13 | م | ـم | m | ||
| 25 | 14 | ن | ـن | n | ||
| 26 | 15 | ه | ـه | h | ||
| 27 | 16 | و | ـو | w | ||
| 28 | 17 | ى | ـى | y | ||
On examining these characters, as represented in the above synopsis, it will at once be seen that, with the exception of the first and the seven last ones, each character stands for two or three sounds, their only distinction consisting in from one to three dots, which are added at the top or bottom of the letter, and that thereby the number of characters is reduced from twenty-eight to seventeen. It will, moreover, be noticed that several of these characters have an appendix or tail, which is well adapted to mark the end of a word, but which would prevent the letter from being readily joined to a following one, and therefore is dispensed with if the letter be initial or connected with others. Suppressing those dots and cutting off these tails, and arranging the characters in their reduced order, and in that form which fits them to appear as initials or medials, we obtain the following simplified schedule:—