The Qura'n Project, status and call for help!

[Mohammed Yousif <mhdyousif at gmx dot net>]

Salam,
 These are some thoughts about the Qur'an project.
 * Font
    I'm currently working on this font, it will have:
     - Othmani letters that Ossama contributed.
     - Other symbols that is used in copying the Qur'an
       texts (Sajda, Robeh Hezb Start, Imala, aya numbers, ...etc)
     - Sura names (سورة الفرقان), Juz'a Numbers (الجزء الخامس), Basmalla,
       and other names of books to be included (tafser, asbab annozol,
       ..etc)
       (yes I will map them in the font itself to the roman alphabet).
   So I need those characters/symbols as bitmap files and also sura
   names and juz'a numbers (I think they can be scanned from a
   hard-copy of the Qur'an text).
   The fonts at motken.com have the most of these symbols but they
   are not unicode fonts (correct me if I'm wrong) so we can't use
   the font itself but we can use the symbols. but first I need to
   know about the license (ask him?).
   as soon as the font is created, we will (Insha'allah) recopy the
   Qura'n arabic text (from a Mushaf of course) to look exactly as
   the Qur'an arabic text written in Othmani script.
 * Displaying text:
   - The user should be able to browse by Aya, by Sura and by page
     (meaning that we limit the number of lines available at a single
      widget for instance to 10 lines).
       (currenly by aya and by sura is implemented in QtQuran)
   - The current Aya should be tracked by red color. (done already
     in QtQuran)
   - At the start of every Sura, there should be a decorated box that
     have the sura name, number of verses and if it's makkiya or
     maddania..etc (this should be scanned from a hard-copy of the
     Qura'an text and displayed as pictures, not much work fortunately).
   - Basmalla should be on the top of every Sura (its symbol will exist
     on the font I'm creating Insha'allah) except Surat Attauba and 
     Surat Al-Fateha.
   - Sajda and Robeh Hezb Start symbols should be included in the XML
     file itself (including the line above the position of the sajda)
     all these symbols should be provided by the font.
   - Current Juz'a number should be on the top-right corner of the
     text container widget and current Sura Name should be on the
     top-left corner.
   - Sajda signs should be on the left of the text container widget
     and it should be on the same line the sajda symbol after the
     verse is in (count the number of lines and the distance between
     them and position the sajda sign accordingly).
   - Robeh Hezb Start symbol should be done the same as the sajda sign.
 * Books:
   - Adding some other books related to the Qur'an in various languages
     to libquran (as addons?)

So on a nutshell, we need:
 - Some symbols used in the Othmani script not provided by Ossama.
    (motken.com?)
 - Scanning Basmalla symbol, sura names, Ajza'a numbers from a Mushaf. (motken.com?)
 - Scanning names of common books that are to be included. (tafser
   Ibn Katheer, Lobab Al-Qaol lel Seyouty, ...etc)
 - Copying the texts of these books:
    * Lobab Al-Qaol lel Seyouty (aka. Asbaab Annuzoul).
    * Tafser Al-Jallalain.
    * Tafser Ibn Katheer.
    * Other books as wll
   to XML format (if you want to contribute ask me first about the DTD
                        to adopt).
         - asking for these books in some electronic format from
           Al-Muhaddith project(http://www.muhaddith.org)?


 A screenshot of the current CVS code of QtQuran is available here:
   http://mhdyousif.hypermart.net/quran/qtquran-0.08.jpg

 Thanks for reading this long email :-)

-- 
Mohammed Yousif
"She is in my mind and soul, I love her with all my heart and blood".
We _will_ restore OUR Jerusalem.