Paleo-Arabic (or Palaeo-Arabic, previously called pre-Islamic Arabic or Old Arabic) is a pre-Islamic script used to write Arabic. Used between the fifth and seventh centuries, it evolved out of the Nabataeo-Arabic script, and was superseded by the standardized Arabic that developed in the Islamic era. The word "Paleo-Arabic" was first coined by Christian Robin using the French expression "paléo-arabe".
Paleo-Arabic was first documented in inscriptions in Syria and Jordan, but has since been found in Western Arabia (the Hejaz), where over fifty Paleo-Arabic inscriptions have now been found, and in South Arabia. The only god mentioned in these inscriptions is Allah. These inscriptions are always Christian when more detailed religious information is available, a finding that is considered informative for understanding the religious history of late pre-Islamic Arabia.
Paleo-Arabic inscriptions are publicly uploaded to the DiCoNab database.
Paleo-Arabic refers to the Arabic script in the centuries prior to the standardization Arabic underwent in the Islamic era. According to Ahmad Al-Jallad and Hythem Sidky, Paleo-Arabic can be distinguished from the script that occurs in later periods by a number of orthographic features, including:
Known Paleo-Arabic inscriptions fall into one of three categories:
The present corpus of Paleo-Arabic inscriptions attests the following introductory formulae:
Paleo-Arabic inscriptions most commonly refer to "God" as al-þilÃÂh or by its orthographic variant illÃÂh, though the term Rabb for "Lord" also appears as is seen in the Abd Shams inscription, Jabal Dabub inscription, and the Ri al-Zallalah inscription.
Christian authors wrote Paleo-Arabic inscriptions found in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and South Arabia. According to Ahmad Al-Jallad and Hythem Sidky, all known Paleo-Arabic inscriptions are monotheistic (that is, they all only mention the one, same God) and, when it is possible to specify further, Christian. As such, they reflect the dominance attained by the spread of monotheism in pre-Islamic Arabia from the fourth to sixth centuries in the pre-Islamic period.
The Bostran era is used, whose starting point is equal to 106 AD in the Gregorian calendar, is used in the Dumat al-Jandal inscription, the Jebel Usays inscription, and the Hima Paleo-Arabic inscriptions. The Seleucid era is used in the Zabad inscription.
The current list of known Paleo-Arabic texts and inscriptions is given in a table and appendix of a paper jointly written by Ahmad Al-Jallad and Hythem Sidky.