Arabic speaking countries

Arabic is the official language of 23 Arab countries, and one of the official languages in 2 non Arab countries namely Eritria and Chad. Here are the flags of these countries.

Calligraphic Sculptures in Saudi Arabia

In Jeddah, if you need to give route directions you will surely need roundabouts as reference points. Each roudabout is usually named after what it physically represents. 

You have the fist roundabout, which is a huge golden sculpted fist, the flying carpet, the history roundabout, the geometry roundabout, the ships roudabout, and many more.

Other than the roundabouts there are typographic sculptures along the coastline walk and the highways. They represent verses from the Qur'an, poetry, proverbs or abstract non-narrative calligraphy. 

Verse from the Qur'an on the shape of a ship using the Diwani script.

Square Kufi or Geometric Kufi composition representing a verse from the Qur'an.

Verse from the Qur'an using the Kufi script.

Abstract composition using Arabic Indic and Western Arabic digits

Poetry verse

Verse from the Qur'an
Photography credits: Dalia Al Qurashi

On the future of the Arabic alphabet

What is Arab? Who is the Arabic man? 

Who is the Arabic woman?

Who is the Arabic letter? Ask these questions to any Arab person and you will get answers diverse beyond imagination.  The Arabic alphabet, as the Latin alphabet, originated from the Phoenician alphabet. It took a long journey filled with grace and passion. It got dignified, mystified, personified, and then mutilated. The six original cursive scripts, Riqa’, Tawqi’, Muhaqqaq, Rayhani, Naskh, and Thulth, highly appreciated for their elegance, beauty and sophistication are being gradually replaced by Arabic rigid “sans serifs”.  To understand the recent development of Arabic typefaces and logotypes, one should take a look at the history of the Arabic script, its usage, and aesthetics. As graphic design and advertising are more and more integrated in the Arab society, whether in the Gulf, North Africa or Levant, different typography disciplines are emerging. Typefaces are undergoing “latinization”. They are enduring drastic changes to suit the English letters when used in bilingual projects, hence breaking all connection with their own history and origins.

Arabic words are written using Latin letters for digital usages. Some missing phonemes are being replaced by numbers.

What’s the duty of an Arabic designer? 

What’s the future of the Arabic Alphabet?