Nabataean Script

Important inscriptions are found in Petra (now in Jordan), the Sinai Peninsula (now part of Egypt), and other archaeological sites including Abdah (in Israel) and Mada'in Saleh in Saudi Arabia.

Nabataean script
Script type	Abjad
Time period	2nd century BC to 4th century AD
Direction	Right-to-left script
Languages	Nabataean Aramaic Nabataean Arabic
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Nabataean script
Child systems	Arabic script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Nbat (159), ​Nabataean
Unicode
Unicode alias	Nabataean
Unicode range	U+10880–U+108AF Final Accepted Script Proposal

Nabataean is only known through inscriptions and, more recently, a small number of papyri. It was first deciphered in 1840 by Eduard Friedrich Ferdinand Beer. 6,000 – 7,000 Nabataean inscriptions have been published, of which more than 95% are extremely short inscriptions or graffiti, and the vast majority are undated, post-Nabataean or from outside the core Nabataean territory. A majority of inscriptions considered Nabataean were found in Sinai, and another 4,000 – 7,000 such Sinaitic inscriptions remain unpublished. Prior to the publication of Nabataean papyri, the only substantial corpus of detailed Nabataean text were the 38 funerary inscriptions from Hegra (Mada'in Salih), published by Julius Euting in 1885.

 

The alphabet is descended from the Aramaic alphabet. In turn, a cursive form of Nabataean developed into the Arabic alphabet from the 4th century, which is why Nabataean's letterforms are intermediate between the more northerly Semitic scripts (such as the Aramaic-derived Hebrew) and those of Arabic.

 

Comparison with related scripts

As compared to other Aramaic-derived scripts, Nabataean developed more loops and ligatures, likely to increase speed of writing. The ligatures seem to have not been standardized and varied across places and time. There were no spaces between words. Numerals in Nabataean script were built from characters of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, and 100.

Name	Phoenician	Phoneme	Aramaic	Nabataean	Syriac	Arabic	Phoneme
ʾālep	𐤀‎	ʾ [ʔ]	𐡀‎		ܐ	ﺍ, ء	ʾ [ʔ]
bēt	𐤁‎	b [b]	𐡁‎		ܒ	ﺏ	b [b]
tāw	𐤕‎	t [t]	𐡕‎		ܬ	ت	t [t]
						ث	ṯ [θ]
gīml	𐤂‎	g [ɡ]	𐡂‎		ܓ	ﺝ	j [d͡ʒ]
ḥēt	𐤇‎	ḥ [ħ]	𐡇‎		ܚ	ح	ḥ [ħ]
						خ	ḵ [x]
dālet	𐤃‎	d [d]	𐡃‎		ܕ	د	d [d]
						ذ	ḏ [ð]
rēs, reš	𐤓‎	r [r]	𐡓‎		ܪ	ﺭ	r [r]
zayin	𐤆‎	z [z]	𐡆‎		ܙ	ﺯ	z [z]
śāmek	𐤎‎	ś [s]	𐡎‎		ܣ	–	–
šīn	𐤔‎	š [ʃ]	𐡔‎		ܫ	س, ش	s [s], š [ʃ]
ṣādē	𐤑‎	ṣ [sˤ]	𐡑‎		ܨ	ص	ṣ [sˤ]
						ض	ḍ [dˤ]
ṭēt	𐤈‎	ṭ [tˤ]	𐡈‎		ܛ	ط	ṭ [tˤ]
						ظ	ẓ [ðˤ]
ʿayin	𐤏‎	ʿ [ʕ]	𐡏‎		ܥ	ع	ʿ [ʕ]
						غ	ḡ [ɣ]
pē	𐤐‎	p [p]	𐡐‎		ܦ	ف	f [f]
qōp	𐤒‎	q [q]	𐡒‎		ܩ	ﻕ	q [q]
kāp	𐤊‎	k [k]	𐡊‎		ܟ	ﻙ	k [k]
lāmed	𐤋‎	l [l]	𐡋‎		ܠ	ﻝ	l [l]
mēm	𐤌‎	m [m]	𐡌‎		ܡ	ﻡ	m [m]
nūn	𐤍‎	n [n]	𐡍‎		ܢ	ﻥ	n [n]
he	𐤄‎	h [h]	𐡄‎		ܗ	ه	h [h]
wāw	𐤅‎	w [w]	𐡅‎		ܘ	ﻭ	w [w]
yod	𐤉‎	y [j]	𐡉‎		ܝ	ي	y [j]

• The correspondence between the letters is based on phoneme proximity, since for example Arabic ḍād ⟨ض⟩ corresponds to Aramaic ʿayn ⟨𐡏⟩ not to Aramaic Ṣādhē ⟨𐡑⟩.
• The table is based on the Hijāʾī order of the Arabic alphabet.
• Aramaic is not derived from Syriac but it is a sister script that is still used by many churches across the Middle East, and it shares with Arabic its cursive style.
• See Aramaic alphabet § Letters for a more detailed comparison of letterforms.

• Julius Euting, Nabatäische Inschriften aus Arabien, Berlin, 1885 (online).
• Euting, Julius (1891). Sinaïtische Inschriften (in German). G. Reimer. ISBN 978-3-11-108880-8.
• Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, 1902 Pars 2, Tomus 1, Fasc 3: Inscriptiones Aramaicae
• Michael E. Stone, 1992. Rock Inscriptions and Graffiti Project: Catalogue of Inscriptions
• Roche, Marie-Jeanne (2019). Inscriptions nabatéennes datées de la fin du IIe siècle avant notre ère au milieu du IVe siècle (in French). Leuven. ISBN 978-90-429-3882-3. OCLC 1229107538.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

•  
  Petra inscriptions as of 1902
•  
  Sinai Peninsula inscriptions as of 1902
•  
  Wadi Mukattab inscriptions as of 1902

The Nabataean alphabet (U+10880–U+108AF) was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.

• Ancient North Arabian script
• Ancient South Arabian script
• Nabataean Aramaic
• Nabataean Arabic