The Arabic alphabet (Arabic: الْأَبْجَدِيَّة الْعَرَبِيَّة, al-abjadīyah l-ʿarabīyah or الْحُرُوف الْعَرَبِيَّة, al-ḥurūf l-ʿarabīyah, IPA: [ʔalʔabd͡ʒadijja lʕarabijja]), or Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing Arabic.It is written from right to left in a cursive style and includes 28 letters.

The history of the alphabet goes back to the consonantal writing system used for Semitic languages in the Levant in the 2nd millennium BCE. Most or nearly all alphabetic scripts used throughout the world today ultimately go back to this Semitic proto-alphabet. Its first origins can be traced back to a Proto-Sinaitic script developed in Ancient Egypt to represent the language …