Paleo-Arabic

Paleo-Arabic is the term given to inscriptions in the fully evolved Arabic script in the pre-Islamic period, and non-standard examples of this writing tradition that may have survived into the early decades of the Medinan State and the Arab Empire of the Umayyads. The Paleo-Arabic script is distinguished from the early Islamic hand by several linguistic, palaeographic, and orthographic features, described in Al-Jallad and Sidky (2022; 2024); these articles also present an up-to-date list of Paleo-Arabic texts. The Digital Corpus of the Nabataean and Developing Arabic Inscriptions will eventually include all known Paleo-Arabic inscriptions.

References

• Al-Jallad, A. and H. Sidky, ‘ A Paleo-Arabic Inscription of a Companion of Muhammad? ’ Journal of Near Eastern Studies , 2024, 83(1): 1-14.
• Al-Jallad, A., & H. Sidky, H. A Paleo-Arabic inscription on a route north of Ṭāʾif. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 2022, 33: 202–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/aae.12203.
• Macdonald, M.C.A. 2008. Old Arabic (Epigraphic). Pages 464–477 in K. Versteeg (ed.), Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, volume 3. Leiden: Brill.
• Macdonald, M.C.A. (ed.) 2010a. The development of Arabic as a written language. (Supplement to the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies volume 40). Oxford: Archaeopress.
• Macdonald, M.C.A. 2010b. Ancient Arabia and the written word. Pages 5-28 in Macdonald 2010a.
• Macdonald, M.C.A. 2015. The emergence of Arabic as a written language. Pages 395–417 in G. Fisher (ed.), Arabs and Empires before Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Nehmé, L. 2010. A glimpse of the development of the Nabataean script into Arabic based on old and new epigraphic material. Pages 47-88 in Macdonald 2010.