'Tis all a chequer-board of nights and days
Where the destiny of men for pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the closet lays.
- - Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam
Arabic Alphabet
I received the document below during my Arabic I class at Westchester Community College. In order to help others learn or practice Arabic, I have scanned the page into my computer and making it available online. I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback on this and other documents I have on my website.
Right-click the below link and select "Save As" to download.
In Arabic, the shape of the letter changes depending on its position in a word. There is also no upper or lower case, nor a letter for C, V, or P in Arabic. The following describes each portion of the above file.
| Upper Left | This is the letter's vocal sound. |
| Upper Right | This is the letter's English equivalent. |
| Center | This is the letter's stand-alone shape. |
| Bottom | This is how the letter changes shape in a word. The right symbol is for beginning characters. The middle is when the letter is neither the beginning nor ending character. The left symbol is the letter at the end of a word. |
For more information, I highly recommend also reading the article at the following URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet