Arwi

, Old Jumma Masjid Arwi was an outcome of the cultural synthesis between seafaring Arabs and Tamil-speaking Muslims of Tamil Nadu. This language was enriched, promoted and developed in Kayalpattinam. It had a rich body of work in jurisprudence, Sufism, law, medicine and sexology, of which little has been preserved. It was used as a bridge language for Tamil Muslims to learn Arabic. The patrons of Arwi do not seem to have been highly associated with any political powers of Southern Indian history, including Muslim-ruled states (such as the Deccan sultanates), which were rather influenced by Central Asia and Northern India, preferring the use of Persian, Dakhni and later Urdu. It is therefore a community-based script and dialect, limited to the Labbays and the Marrakayars communities in Southern India, and to the Sri Lankan Moors and the Indian Moors of Ceylon. Many hadith manuscripts have been found. Most of the fiqh books, particularly those of Imaam Abu Hanifa and Imaam Shaafi, have been found in Arwi. There was also a translation of the Bible into Arwi in 1926. Arwi still has a place among the more Arwi Muslim and Sri Lankan Moor families. == Script ==

The Arwi alphabet is the Arabic alphabet, with thirteen additional letters used to represent the Tamil vowels e and o and several Tamil consonants that could not be mapped to Arabic sounds. Vowels :Notes • Unlike other vowels, and unlike in Persian, Urdu, or Arabic, when vowels i, ī, e, ē come at the beginning of a word (respectively ), the vowel carrier is not alif () but is instead yeh (). This spelling indicates the loss of glottal stop in words which start with these vowels, and its replacement by a palatal sound. In rare cases, these vowels have indeed been written with alif as their base. Consonants :Notes • The letter , representing the sound , has been written with the Arabic letter in the beginning of word, geminated, or in combination with other consonants. This letter has been written with the Arabic letter in between vowels. • The letter , representing the sound [~], has been written with the Arabic letter in the beginning of word, geminated, or after a nasal consonant. This letter has been written with the Arabic letter in at the beginning of words and in between vowels. The Arabic letter also represents the Tamil letter , representing the sound and the Tamil letter representing the sound . • For when this letter is geminated, i.e. , some historic manuscripts used the letter dal with two dots underneath, the modified Arwi letter . But most manuscripts simply used the letter dal with one dot underneath, and with a gemination diacritic, the letter . • The Arabic letter has not been used in a widespread manner for representing the Tamil letter (representing the sound ). Most historic sources use the letter for this Tamil letter as well as for the Tamil letter (representing the sound ). • For the Tamil letter , representing the sound [~], the Arabic letter is used. Except if this letter is in between vowels, or following a nasal sound, where the letter is used. • The Tamil letter representing the sound has usually been written with the Arabic letter . In addition, in rare occasions, this sound has been represented by the Arabic letter . This sound doesn't occur at beginning of words. == Sample Texts ==

Below are several sample texts in Arwi orthography, in standard Tamil Script, and transliterated into Latin as per ISO 15919. == See also ==