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

Mohammed Yousif wrote:

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.

Wa Alaikom Assalam,
First, sorry for the late answer but our mail server was down for the last three days.
Alhamdo-Li-Allah finally someone is working on the font (sorry I couldn't figure
out how). It's really important that you document step by step how you're doing so
I can maybe help in coming font sets for Linux in General.

    - Other symbols that is used in copying the Qur'an
      texts (Sajda, Robeh Hezb Start, Imala, aya numbers, ...etc)

Actually, the callygraphar didn't put all the signs because he didn't have them all. But I can
again go back to him and bring all the signs or extra letter you need so I can complete my
work at least :)
Also, about Aya numbers, do you think there's a way we can create the fonts in a way
that makes numbers go inside the Symbol rather than creating 286 different numbers needed
for all Aya numbers?

    - 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?).

Well, I guess some fonts are UTF-8 and others aren't I'll double check anyway.
About the license, I can try to ask him if you like?

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 :-)



Jazaka Allaho Khairan :)

Ossama Khayat