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Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly RecordBible translators to master all the Semiticlanguages, amazing as it is, was in parthelped by the family similarities behindthe different scripts. The Arabic alphabetis written from right to left, like most otherSemitic languages, 8 and shares the customin writing of having consonants only, withsmaller indications of vowel sounds anoptional extra. There are now several stylesof script: Naskh is used in print and bycomputers, and Ruq’ah is commonly used inhandwriting.Every Arab country makes its owncontribution to a rich mix, sharing acommon Arab culture in most aspects.it referred to the whole peninsula. TheGreeks and the Romans were familiar withthe region.The pre-Islamic times of Arabian historyare now referred to by Muslim scholarsas Al Jahiliyah—‘the time of ignorance’.Herodotus (425–485 BC) in The Historiesrefers to the influence of the Arabiansin the 6th century BC extendingthroughout Assyria (modern Iraq). Theytraded in frankincense, myrrh, cassia andcinnamon with Greece, and paid tributeof frankincense to King Darius. In the 1stcentury AD following the conquest ofEgypt, Rome began trading directly withMiskan/FlickrGillmore/FlickrExamples of decorative Arabic calligraphyToday most Arabs are Muslim, but Arabidentity is defined independent of religion,and well predates the rise of Islam, withhistorically attested Arab-Christiankingdoms and Arab-Jewish tribes. However,non-Arab people account for over eightyper cent of the world’s Muslim population:not part of the ‘Arab world’, but of thegeographically larger, more diverse ‘Muslimworld’. For them, Arabic is, at the veryleast, a familiar second language, as Latinwas in medieval ‘Christendom’. In terms ofBible need and provision we should think,perhaps, of the ‘Arabic-aware’ world.k Some HistoryArabia, as a name, was anciently applied tothe desert region from the east of the NileDelta and round toward Syria; subsequently24Arabia, dramatically redrawing the old‘incense routes’.There were numerous tribes of heathenArabian origin who had willingly, withoutcoercion, converted to the religion of theJews (Mosaic faith), or later to Christianity,or who became Hanifs: believers in the Godof Abraham. Contact between Hebrewsand Arabs was continuous throughout theirhistories. Jews probably moved amongthe Arabs as merchant traders, and suchmigrations grew during the Greek andRoman occupations of Judea, especiallyafter the destruction of the Temple ofSolomon in AD 70 and the later JewishRevolt of AD 135.By the time of Muhammad in AD 620,there were numerous and very prosperous