Persiskarabiske

Persisk-arabiske refers to the Persian variant of the Arabic script used to write the Persian language (Farsi) and Dari. It is a script-based writing system that writes primarily consonants and long vowels, while short vowels are usually omitted in everyday use. The Persian variant is an abjad, closely related to the Arabic alphabet but adapted to represent Persian phonology.

The script originated with the adoption of Islam in the Persian-speaking world and evolved through centuries of literary and administrative use. Persian writers added several letters to the Arabic repertoire to represent sounds not present in Arabic, and over time the script became the standard means of writing Persian, historically used in literature, administration, and education. Today, it remains a core element of Persian identity and literacy in Iran and Afghanistan, while Tajikistan uses a Cyrillic-based script for Persian in Tajik.

Key features of the Persian-Arabic script include its right-to-left orientation, the use of four additional letters to represent Persian phonemes, and a cursive, context-dependent letter system where most letters connect to form ligatures. The four extra letters are پ (pe), چ (che), ژ (zhe), and گ (gaf). In modern usage, Persian text often includes diacritics only in learning materials or religious texts, and long vowels are typically inferred from context. The script is encoded in Unicode, with the Persian-specific letters integrated into the Arabic script blocks.

See also: Arabic script, Persian language, Dari, Persian orthography.