page_title: Writing systems of Africa
section_title: Arabic
hierarchical_section_title: Writing systems of Africa / Introduced and adapted writing systems / Arabic
caption_attribution_description: Colorized version of an ancient Wadaad's Writing Stone tablet - Somalia Museum
context_page_description: The writing systems of Africa refer to the current and historical practice of writing systems on the African continent, both indigenous and those introduced.
  Today, the Latin script is commonly encountered across Africa, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. Arabic script is mainly used in North Africa and Ge'ez/Ethiopic script is dominant in the Horn of Africa. Regionally and in some localities, other scripts may be of significant importance.
context_section_description: The Arabic script was introduced into Africa by the spread of Islam and by trade. Apart from its obvious use for the Arabic language, it has been adapted for a number of other languages over the centuries. The Arabic script is still used in some of these cases, but not in others.
  It was often necessary to modify the script to accommodate sounds not represented in the script as used for the Arabic language. The adapted form of the script is also called Ajami, especially in the Sahel, and sometimes by specific names for individual languages, such as Wolofal, Sorabe, and Wadaad writing.  Despite the existence of a widely known and well-established script in Ethiopia, there are a few cases where Muslims in Ethiopia have used the Arabic script, instead, for reasons of religious identity.
  There are no official standard forms or orthographies, though local usage follows traditional practice for the area or language. There was an effort by ISESCO to standardize Ajami usage. Some critics believe this relied too much on Perso-Arabic script forms and not enough on existing use in Africa. In any event, the effect of that standardization effort has been limited.
caption: Ancient Somali-Arabic stone tablet: a system also known as Wadaad writing.
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