________________
JULY, 1885.J
KUFIC ALPHABET FROM KABUL.
181
A MODERN ORNAMENTAL KUFIC ALPHABET FROM KABUL.
BY CAPT. R. C. TEMPLE. T URING the Kábul War of 1878-1880 a slip (3) Derived from him the slave, the sinner,
of paper, of which a full-sized facsimile the pilgrim (to Makka), the suppliant is given below, was picked up in the Amir's
for the mercy of God, Yahya, the public rooms on the 12th October, 1879, and after
preacher : (dated) the month of Juma - wards found its way into the possession of the dia'l-awwal, 1293 (June 1876). Rev. J. Hinton Knowles, of Srinagar, Kâs- The next two lines transcribe the heavy mir, who handed it over to me for disposal. black characters of the facsimile. These clearly It shows the alphabet of an ornamental modern represent a modernized' form of the Kufic variant of the Kûfic variety of the Arabic alphabet, written in an ornamental style. The character, and is accompanied by a description derivation of the letters from the mediæval in high-flown Persian, describing by whom and Kûfic is obvious, and their form is interesting why it was written.
for the following reasons : -It will be observed The transcription is as follows:
that the modern order of the Arabic alphabet, which is by no means the probable Kufie order, has been strictly followed, and a close inspection will show that every letter of the original has been carefully differentiated from its fellows. The last letter' I take to be the sukrin or sound-stop in Arabic. Now the modern Arabic
(1) الف و ب خط کوفی تا آخر تحریر شده
بحسب الحكم (2) حضرت مسقفي الممالك صاحب ادام الله
تعالی اقبالله وبركاته و (3) مشقه العبد العاصي الحاجي الرا جي
الى رحمة الله بعی واعظ کار گاه شهر
جمادی الاول ۱۲۹۳ (1) اب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص
. ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک ل م ن و ه ض (2)
ظ غ letters .are not found in the me ث خ ذ ض
diæval Kafic at all, and of the rest one symbol did duty for the following pairs of letters, vix.
آف ق ا س ش ارزاج حاب ت
(1) A and B (in the) Kafi character, to the The medieval Küfic in fact had but 17
end, written according to the order (of) | symbols, with which all the sounds of the (2) The great Mustafta'l-Mamalik Sahib | Arabic language had to be expressed. The
(Chancellor of the Exchequer), may Al- forms of these are as under, and from a commighty God ever preserve his honour and parison the descent of the letters in the facsimile his prosperity !
will be clearly seen.
ل م (وه
ا ك ق
اسے بے د و ر م
البار
