Sharjastani (الخط الشارجستاني)

The Sharjastani script was conceived in 2008 by UC Berkeley student, Sharja Khan, as an alternative script for writing Arabic and can be adapted to any language that uses the Arabic alphabet. The concept of writing vertically originated primarily out of convenience, as he found it more practical for taking class notes in the vertical margins of textbooks and printed documents. While the letters themselves are only slight deviations from their Arabic originals, the overall style of the script was artistically influenced by Mongolian calligraphy, as well as the ancient Sogdian and Uyghur scripts. After years of stylistic evolution, it was officially proclaimed as the state script of the Sultanate of Sharjastan, a fictional nation of ambiguous Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture founded by Sharja in 2010.

Notable features

Type of writing system: Abjad
Used to write: Predominantly Arabic, however, letters can be adapted for Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Urdu, or any Central Asian language that historically used Arabic orthography.
Direction of writing: Words are written in vertical columns from right to left. Within a column, numbers are written horizontally from left to right up to only three numerical places at a time.
As in Arabic, letters change their forms depending on their positions within the word and are always joined when possible.
Unlike in Classical Arabic, a system for short vowel diacritics has not officially been developed yet.

Alphabet Chart for Sharjastani script

Sharjastani script

Sample texts in Sharjastani script

Sample texts in the Sharjastani script

Standard Arabic version

يولد جميع الناس أحراراً متساوين في الكرامة والحقوق. وقد وهبوا عقلاً وضميراً وعليهم ان يعامل بعضهم بعضاً بروح اﻹخاء.

Transliteration

Yūladu jamī'u n-nāsi aḥrāran mutasāwīna fī l-karāmati wa-l-ḥuqūq. Wa-qad wuhibū 'aqlan wa-ḍamīran wa-'alayhim an yu'āmila ba'ḍuhum ba'ḍan bi-rūḥi l-ikhā'.

English version

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

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