Rasm

Rasm is an Arabic writing script often used in the early centuries of <a href="/facts/Classical_Arabic/TShrKBgR">Classical Arabic</a> literature (7th century – early 11th century AD). It is the same as today's Arabic script except for the big difference that the <a href="/facts/Arabic_diacritics/7TAagmkr">Arabic diacritics</a> are omitted. These diacritics include consonant pointing or ʾiʿjām (إِعْجَام), and supplementary diacritics or taškīl (تَشْكِيل). The latter include the ḥarakāt (حَرَكَات) short vowel marks—singular: ḥarakah (حَرَكَة). As an example, in rasm, the two distinct letters ص ض are indistinguishable because ʾiʿjām is omitted, or letters similar in shape ک ك may also become indistinguishable if the diacritics are omitted. Rasm is also known as Arabic skeleton script. This concept is somewhat similar to <a href="/facts/Scriptio_continua/Yc8Jogxa">scriptio continua</a> in the Latin script, where all spaces and other punctuations is omitted. The rasm form was also common for writing Arabic until the early 2nd millennium.

Rasm open-in-new

Rasm