Arabic-L:GEN:More info on Al-muSHaf Al-Eiliktruunyy

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 25 Sep 2008
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1) Subject:More info on Al-muSHaf Al-Eiliktruunyy

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1)
Date: 25 Sep 2008
From:t.milo at chello.nl
Subject:More info on Al-muSHaf Al-Eiliktruunyy

The minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs of Oman gave the go-ahead  
to DecoType for designing a Koran in Unicode using Tasmeem (www.tasmeem.eu 
) at the occasion of Ramadan, I gave a brief lecture about the project  
in the Grand Mosque. I did so in Arabic alternating with English for  
an audience consisting of two ministers (one of whom is the heir  
apparent to Sultan Qaboos), dignitaries, including the Anglican bishop  
and the head of a protestant Christian mission institute in Muscat   
and members of the corps diplomatique.

The project starting this month and involves tackling a series of  
unresolved problems regarding the Unicode coverage of Koran  
orthography [notably the amphibious letters like hamza, mini alef or  
dagger, mini waw and mini yeh], as well as the consequent typographic  
issues.

The first objective is to shape the text in a traditional way, without  
hacking the amphious letters, while fully complying with the Unicode  
Standard.

Here's some footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YvnxxYtLAQ
"Unicode" appears at  1:00 / 2:59 (total duration of the item about  
Electronic Koran in Unicode is from 0:27 / 2:59 to 1:37 / 2:59)

It was national news that circulated all over the Arab world.
e-Copy of Holy Quran Launched in Oman
Khaleej Times - Dubai,United Arab Emirates
The electronic Quran was designed by DecoType, linguistic experts and  
designers of computer-aided typography, and its president Thomas Milo  
gave a ...
See all stories on this topic
http://www.omannews.gov.om/ona/pict/(2008-09-08)05A.jpg
http://www.omannews.gov.om/ona/pictDetails.jsp

Some more backgrounds:
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200704/keyboard.calligraphy.htm
http://meer.trouw.nl/nieuws-en-debat/eindelijk-terug-naar-het-swingende-schrift
http://www.river-valley.tv/conferences/non_latintypefacedesign/media/Thomas_Milo/


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End of Arabic-L:  25 Sep 2008