[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-40100-en":3,"doc-seo-40100-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},40100,1099513958607,"Jiven","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/100002390cf8733938c?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778829742770036399",8,"Research & Report","The Development of the Hijazi Orthography","Examines key orthographic innovations in early Islamic writing, comparing them with Nabataean orthography and tracing their adoption through newly available epigraphic evidence, including whether similar developments began before Islam. Analyzes Arabic orthographic complexity and morphophonological spelling reflected in Quranic orthography as well as pre-Islamic inscriptions, arguing that early Islamic orthography continues a mature Hijazi scribal tradition. Considers how these changes unfold across later centuries rather than as a single reform event.","Marijn van Putten  \nThe Development of the Hijazi Orthography  \nAbstract: This paper examines the main orthographic innovations of the early Islamic orthography in comparison to the Nabataean orthography and traces through new epigraphic evidence when and where these innovations came to be used. It is shown that a number of them clearly develop already in the pre-Islamic period. Besides this, the paper looks at the complexities of Arabic orthography and morphophonological spelling as it is reflected in the Quranic orthography as well as pre-Islamic inscriptions and argues that the early Islamic orthography represents the continuation of a developed Hijazi scribal tradition.  \n1 Introduction  \nThe Arabic script started as an offshoot of the Imperial Aramaic script adopted by the Nabataean kingdom (ca. 3rd century BCE to 106 AD). Throughout the centuries during which it has been in use, it has undergone radical change. The Aramaic script was already a poor match for the Arabic language to begin with, as it lacked many signs to distinguish sounds absent in Aramaic but present in Arabic, yet as the centuries progressed and the script became more cursive, some originally distinct signs started to merge. This led to a highly ambiguous Arabic script that in word-medial position only distinguishes 14 of its 28 letters by shape, and in word-final position has only 18 distinct shapes. The development of the script was a fairly gradual process, as laid out in detail by Laïla Nehmé .¹  \nThe spelling principles, on the other hand, would initially strike one as having undergone a much less gradual and more radical transition. The start of the Islamic period looks like a marked departure from the principles present in the pre-Islamic orthography – primarily found in the onomasticon as the (transitional) Nabataean inscriptions are mostly written in Aramaic. The orthographic developments were laid out in detail in a series of extremely insightful articles by Werner Diem written around the early 1980’s.² These studies were strikingly prescient but do show their  \nAs a contribution to the conference “Epigraphy, the Qur’an, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia”, the writing of this article has benefitted from funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement id: 866043) .  \n1 Nehmé 2010: 47–88.  \n2 Diem 1979: 207–57; Diem 1980: 67–106; Diem 1981: 332–83; Diem 1983: 357–404.  \nMarijn van Putten, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Reuvensplaats 3–4, 2311 Leiden, Belgium, [m.van.putten@hum.leidenuniv.nl](m.van.putten@hum.leidenuniv.nl)  \n[https://doi.org/10.1515/mill-2023-0007](https://doi.org/10.1515/mill-2023-0007)  \n Open Access. ©2023 The Author(s), published by De Gruyter.  This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4 .0 International License.  \n108  Marijn van Putten  \nage today. Diem’s observations of the Islamic era orthography were based on the 1924 Cairo Edition of the Quran. This print edition uses very archaic spelling but is nevertheless based on medieval works describing the Uthmanic orthography, rather than being based on early Islamic manuscripts to reconstruct the actual original Uthmanic orthography. This is understandable, as at the time early Quranic manuscripts were not easily accessible to the researcher.³  \nIn recent years, research into the Arabic language both in its late pre-Islamic and early Islamic phases has seen a (digital) transformation. Both amateur and professional epigraphers have started collecting hundreds of both pre-Islamic and early Islamic inscriptions – photographs of many of which are freely available online. Likewise, the access to early Islamic Quranic manuscripts has seen a revolution, and many of our early codices are now easily accessible through digital repositories like Corpus Coranicum ([https://corpuscoranicum.de](https://corpuscoranicum.de)). As a result, it has become possible to co","cbCaif5p7mmDL8Ao","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaif5p7mmDL8Ao","pdf",402804,5,1,22,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Background: script origins and ambiguity\n## Spelling principles and early Islamic transition\n## Research context: epigraphy and digital corpora\n## Reassessing orthographic reform hypotheses","[{\"question\":\"What does the paper compare to explain early Islamic orthographic innovations?\",\"answer\":\"It compares early Islamic orthography with Nabataean orthography and follows new epigraphic evidence to track when and where innovations were used.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper characterize Arabic script and its spelling challenges?\",\"answer\":\"It highlights that the Arabic script became highly ambiguous as cursive writing merged formerly distinct signs, while spelling also involved complex morphophonological representation in Quranic orthography and earlier inscriptions.\"},{\"question\":\"Does the paper support the idea of a single deliberate orthographic reform in early Islam?\",\"answer\":\"No. It argues there was no single deliberate reform in the period of the ‘rightly guided caliphs’, and instead presents changes as a sequence of steps across the fifth and sixth centuries, with roots in the pre-Islamic Hijaz.\"}]",1783303211,55,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":28},"the-development-of-the-hijazi-orthography","",{"@graph":36,"@context":86},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-development-of-the-hijazi-orthography/40100/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-16","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What does the paper compare to explain early Islamic orthographic innovations?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"It compares early Islamic orthography with Nabataean orthography and follows new epigraphic evidence to track when and where innovations were used.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"How does the paper characterize Arabic script and its spelling challenges?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"It highlights that the Arabic script became highly ambiguous as cursive writing merged formerly distinct signs, while spelling also involved complex morphophonological representation in Quranic orthography and earlier inscriptions.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"Does the paper support the idea of a single deliberate orthographic reform in early Islam?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"No. It argues there was no single deliberate reform in the period of the ‘rightly guided caliphs’, and instead presents changes as a sequence of steps across the fifth and sixth centuries, with roots in the pre-Islamic Hijaz.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,102,106,110,115,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":20,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]