Arabic (Nastaliq variant)
Script details
See all script details: code, region, status and more
| Code | Aran |
| Script type | abjad |
| Region | Middle Eastern |
| Status | Current |
| Direction | RTL bidirectional |
| Baseline | bottom |
| Case | no |
| White space | between words |
| Complex behaviors | diacritics, contextual forms, complex positioning, required ligatures |
| OpenType code | unspecified |
| ISO 15924 Numeric Code / Key | 161 (right-to-left alphabetic) |
Script description
The Nastaliq variant of Arabic script is a cursive script, written horizontally but at a sloping angle where the longer the sequence of characters is in a calligraphically-connected cluster, the taller it becomes.
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It has short verticals and long horizontal strokes. Due to the slope and calligraphic style, placement of nuqtas (dots) on the base characters is forced to vary quite a bit among different letters and even different forms of the same letter. Words are separated by a space.
The name (Nastaliq) is a composite of the names for the “Naskh” and “Taliq” styles of writing. Nastaliq is used in Afghanistan, India, Iran, and Pakistan. Because it is used for writing the Urdu language it is sometimes called Urdu script. However, it is also used for writing many other languages.
Nastaliq employs the Eastern Arabic-Indic digits. Standard Arabic-Indic digits are never used.
Languages that use this script
There are no known languages that use this script.
Unicode status
In The Unicode Standard, Arabic Script implementation is discussed in Chapter 9 Middle East-I: Modern and Liturgical Scripts
, in UAX 53 Unicode Arabic Mark Rendering, and in UTN 46 Rendering the Allah Ligature. The Arabic (Nastaliq variant) script uses characters from the Arabic script Unicode blocks.
Other:
Resources
- ScriptSource page for Arabic (Nastaliq variant) - all about scripts, languages, and writing systems
- Wikipedia article on Arabic (Nastaliq variant)