Re: Sequential Fathatan Final Form (Items 9 and 10)

[Mohammed Yousif <mhdyousif at gmx dot net>]

On Thursday 17 June 2004 01:26, Thomas Milo wrote:
> If one disagrees on a fine point of Classical Greek grammar, nobody would
> even think of leaving the final word solely to the University of Athens. So
> why would Arabic be out of bounds for the rest of humanity? I believe
> Arabic is common human cultural heritage and can be discussed by learned
> people anywhere.
>

 I agree, that is why I said you need to discuss it with Al-Azhar and the like
 who claim that it's the correct spelling not just mentioning it here.
 I mean this is not the right place to discuss this, you have to discuss it
 with those scholars who have their names on the mushaf and prove them
 wrong if you want. But saying that they are wrong without discussing it with
 them is not the best way to go.

 Plus, it's not only about Arabic, the Qur'an has special rules with regard to
 spelling and to state that this is right or wrong, you have to learn a lot of
 things that even some dedicated scholars may not be able to make this
 statement.
 
 Aside from that, I can tell you that this spelling is based on Arabic
 reference books "أمهات الكتب" which may also define more than one
 valid spelling for a given word.

 These Ummahat Al-Kottob have been used for thousands of years, and
 unlike most of the languages out there that, old Arabs were very very
 involved with regard to Arabic that you can call wizards.
 For instance, to prove that a very lengthy Nathr (or article) is stolen from
 someone else, at that time the only proof that was there is to complete
 it to the last line from memory!!
 This is because it's very normal for them to memorize anything related to
 Arabic.

 So please be reasonable in this regard, if you think something is misspelled,
 you should prove it first (keeping in mind that different spellings may also
 be correct and that these scholars are very knowledgable in this regard "but
 still you can go and discuss it with them but only with them not with me and
 not here")

> It would be helpful if you or someone with a scanner provided some samples
> illustrating your point.
>

  Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner, PLEASE anyone scan them.
  If we cannot find someone to scan them, I will take all the masahef
  I have and scan them on a computer shop or something ISA.

> Anyway, it is not an encoding issue. You are totally free to encode
> fathatan-alif or alif-fathatan. However, you own examples show the order
> fathatan-alif and it would be better to describe them as such.
>

 Yes, I agree, how it looks like should be stated in the font file as the
 glyphs for those characters.

-- 
Mohammed Yousif
Egypt