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Learn To Write Arabic


smk

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Ah - I see now. I don't know if there is word صمار but thought it might be a variation of السمار (to chat - I think).

 

The 'laam' typically joins the 'Haa' at the top of the first horizontal stroke and the mouth of the 'Haa' is left open like this الحمار (except the meem should be under the horizontal as in your example).

 

This is covered in Lesson 10.

 

Salman

 

Right! Clearly my confusing error. That donkey didn't learn!

 

I think I have seen the laam - Haa' written as follows, as well.

 

Cheers,

Rich

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Rich - it looked like your written version when I was typing it :headsmack:

 

The join you have used is the one used in handwriting, the join in my typed version is used in Typography and Calligraphy - I believe I have mentioned this in the video.

 

Salman

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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone making any progress? Taking care of a Persian friend after her surgery, so I don't have a lot of pen time, but I might pick up some pointers. :hmm1:

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Outstanding! Glad I stumbled on this thread. Kind of got this backwards... I became interested in FPs to enhance / accentuate / further develop the writing sections of my MSA courses for grad school. Writing the words out with a Pilot ball point, (diposable... sorry), is certainly enjoyable, but I want to capture and save some of the artistic qualities of the language, (especially since my written English is utterly trashed). Shukrahn for putting the examples up. It's great to see examples of where this can be taken.

 

I look forward to more form this thread!!!

 

 

Salaam.

Scott

<My avatar is an example of Bismallah (Islamic) caligraphy, that says "In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Gracious". As a side note, I am neither Islamic, nor particularly religious. I just think it's really cool.>

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Anyone making any progress?

 

I would like to know too :-)

 

I had a couple of more videos planned but since nobody has posted anything for feedback I wasn't sure this was helping anyone.

 

Scott - I'm glad you find this useful. I will probably do the remaining two videos in a week or so just to reach a milestone :-)

 

Salman

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I'm a native English speaker, as I imagine most people on the board are, and I've been learning Arabic with the Alif Baa books (and a class. I guess it would be fairer to say I'm learning with a class. I need those 4 credits a semester!)

 

There are a few things that are perfectly clear from smk's posts (haven't watched the videos because I wanted to catch up to the thread) such as the numerous shortcuts (these, I did not learn until my second semester, and even then I tend to write pretty fully. I think I only use the siin-as-line bit, per se. However, what he doesn't mention is how... ah... "unique" handwriting can get. I worked with a few people during the last semester who were Arabic and taking the class because it's easy for them. One of them, from Iraq, had handwriting I could not really read. I don't have a sample of it now that the class is over, but I do have a loose script for an incredibly simplistic skit we had to write and perform, which was written by someone with slightly more "standard" handwriting. A lot of the time, I see Americans that are kinda used to seeing the book-Arabic, which is so rarely used outside of street signs and calligraphy that it's basically worthless for something like correspondence and written notes. (Maybe most people aren't used to attending a college in Dearborn, though, which is one of the few places you see lots of native English speakers AND lots of native Arabic speakers that I am aware of in Michigan, if not the US as a whole...)

 

So I think it's important to keep tabs on that difference, because it's a fair bit bigger than in typed-versus-handwritten Latin characters.

 

(As a side note, I really prefer the geometric Kufic scripts to the more "ornamental" stuff. I've seen a few scans of early Qurans, back when Kufic was the style and I just really find it gorgeous, but at the same time more readable than Ruq'ah or even Nashk... except that they hadn't adopted widespread use of dots, in the same way that most harakat are not used now, which made things hard)

 

Arabic%20Sample%20-%20FPN.jpg

Edited by Linsolv
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First testing of the new Lamy Safari. It's a process.

 

- Tasharrafna (Pleased to meet you)

 

- Anah Scott, w-ente? (I'm Scott.. and you are?)

 

- Kayf alhal? (How are you?)

 

- Alhamduillah (Thanks be to God)

post-95931-0-58637900-1356206022.jpg

<My avatar is an example of Bismallah (Islamic) caligraphy, that says "In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Gracious". As a side note, I am neither Islamic, nor particularly religious. I just think it's really cool.>

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I had a few negative comments so I thought I'd put my own handwriting out there, so I could at least be criticized for not learning English properly, lol.

 

Next time a chance comes up to show off my Arabic, I'll do that too. Just because I don't feel like it's fair for me to be sitting here judging people from behind a curtain or something.

 

FPN%202012-12-22%2016.45.jpg

Edited by Linsolv
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First testing of the new Lamy Safari. It's a process.

 

- Tasharrafna (Pleased to meet you)

 

- Anah Scott, w-ente? (I'm Scott.. and you are?)

 

- Kayf alhal? (How are you?)

 

- Alhamduillah (Thanks be to God)

 

That is a good attempt. It seems like you are attempting to replicate typographical forms of the letters which makes writing quite inefficient.

 

I quite agree with points 1 and 3 of Linsolv's feedback. On point 2, I believe the dots will be fine once you reduce the size of the notches in your 'shiin'.

 

Also, it's more fluent to write a 'Haa' in the middle of the word if you join it at the top (see example below). In Alhamd-u-lillah, you need two 'laam's as I have shown in the example below. Also, 'meem' goes under the line when writing.

 

Finally, I wouldn't write 'Scott' with a 'Saad'. I have shown how I would write it but consider it only as an option, not an authoritative 'correct' form.

 

Check out the lessons on the joined form of 'Haa' and 'sheen' (Lessons 10 and 12).

 

fpn_1356263621__arabiclessons-feedback.gif

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However, what he doesn't mention is how... ah... "unique" handwriting can get.

 

I believe I do mention the variations of how things might appear in handwritten form in the videos here and there.

 

A lot of the time, I see Americans that are kinda used to seeing the book-Arabic, which is so rarely used outside of street signs and calligraphy that it's basically worthless for something like correspondence and written notes.

 

This is a good point. I agree that the difference between the 'printed' and 'written' form of Arabic is much larger than for latin scripts and I didn't realize how confusing it would be for someone not used to it. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

I have planned a video on 'variations' of the joined forms and will probably do one that compares the printed and written forms.

 

Salman

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Confusing is an understatement. I look at the joined forms and I'm still lost where one letter begins and another begins :embarrassed_smile:

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Confusing is an understatement. I look at the joined forms and I'm still lost where one letter begins and another begins :embarrassed_smile:

 

That can happen sometimes, yeah. But once you learn to recognize the forms, you shouldn't have TOO big a problem with it. It's just a matter of recognizing where a letter begins. Only the hand-written siin is "no letter" and just a baseline, and sometimes that can lead to confusion for people who don't automatically know what the word means (say, second-semester Arabic students, or people who don't speak Arabic at all). Otherwise, keep trying to look at Arabic letters and breaking down which ones are where, and so on, and it will come with time.

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Shukrahn for the comments. My first semester of MSA was done entirely online, and focused on the letters and a little sentence structure. Most of the assignments were turned in using an Arabic keyboard... I can imagine the prof trying to grade 2 sections of 1st semester students. Next semster focuses more on writing and language skills, so I'm certain I'll need to get away from the "textbook" letter formation.

Edited by 94Terp

<My avatar is an example of Bismallah (Islamic) caligraphy, that says "In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Gracious". As a side note, I am neither Islamic, nor particularly religious. I just think it's really cool.>

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Ah, that would explain it. Handwriting practice (just like in English, how about that!) is key to having good handwriting. :P Good luck with S2! That's where I stumbled. Went back to S1 to work on my studying habits and came out of it with a whole new understanding of ruq'ah handwriting. Sometimes you get lucky I guess.

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Saw the topic and presumed it was about arabic calligraphy...haha

 

I am a student of Chinese calligraphy and self-taught/self-learning at Western calligraphy, with just a couple months of arabic calligraphy. Interestingly, I just came back from an exhibition Islamic Arts From Southeast Asia (Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore). Was at first disappointed that the so-called illuminated Qu'rans which was a far cry from those I've seen at the National Museum of India, until a different section focused on calligraphy just got my fan-girl mood turned to the MAX. drool.gif Other than appreciating, all I could recognise are alifs and baas hahaha...!

 

 

 

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I started a topic on learning Arabic Calligraphy (Naskh) but didn't find any takers :-) This topic was started as a response to some requests for help in learning how to write.

 

What hands are you learning? Arabic Calligraphy is tough to pick up without guidance, it takes a while to understand the nuances of each script - a process made much easier with the guidance from a teacher. I have been learning pretty much on my own for the past few years - I'm sure with proper guidance I would have mastered at least one style by now.

 

Salman

Edited by smk
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Oops! Been off line due to real world and ISP provider coming this afternoon to put the magic smoke back into the equipment, so I probably missed a lot. Didn't see the post. :embarrassed_smile:

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  • 1 month later...

This is for people who have shown an interest in learning how to write Arabic.

 

Wow, I was just going to ask about this, and then found the thread right away. This is great. I studied Arabic a little while serving in Desert Storm and really enjoyed it. I've since forgotten everything except how to write some of the numbers (almost all, I think).

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