arabic-book-editorial-marks

SVG artwork for 20 Arabic editorial/structural marks used in classical kitab (book) typesetting—freely available for use in any digital or print project.

Background

Classical Arabic books (kitab) make use of a small, recurring set of formulaic words and phrases as structural markers—chapter and section headings, a foreword, a table of contents, prayer openers, a closing colophon, and so on. In carefully typeset kitab, these markers are often rendered as single decorative units rather than plain running text.

This collection provides high-resolution, ready-to-use SVG artwork for these marks, for use in book design, digital typesetting, or any other project.

The artwork was generated using Kaleam and Kelk, and is released under CC BY 4.0, freely available for any project—digital, print, educational, commercial, or otherwise.

Styles

Each mark is available in two calligraphic styles:

• Thuluth (svg/thuluth/)—the more commonly used, more ornamental style.
• Nasta'liq (svg/nastaliq/)—a flowing, more slanted alternative style.

For any given mark, both styles are sized to match the same physical scale used in arabic-honorific-ligatures (same source font, same unit conversion)—so artwork from both projects can be combined smoothly, with no rescaling needed.

Contents

| Path | Description | |------|-------------| | svg/thuluth/ | Individual SVG files, Thuluth style, one per mark | | svg/nastaliq/ | Individual SVG files, Nasta'liq style, one per mark | | png/thuluth/ | Individual PNG files, Thuluth style, one per mark (black on transparent) | | png/nastaliq/ | Individual PNG files, Nasta'liq style, one per mark (black on transparent) | | specimen/specimen-sheet.png | Full specimen sheet, Thuluth & Nasta'liq side by side (all 20 marks) | | specimen/specimen-sheet.pdf | Specimen sheet in PDF format |

Glyph list

Files are named after a plain transliteration of the phrase, e.g. bab.svg, khatimah.svg.

| File | Arabic | Transliteration | Meaning | |------|--------|-----------------|---------| | basmalah | بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم | bismillāhir raḥmānir raḥīm | "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" | | muqaddimah | مقدمة | muqaddimah | introduction | | tamhid | تمهيد | tamhīd | prologue | | bayna-yaday-kitab | بين يدي الكتاب | bayna yaday al-kitāb | foreword (lit. "before the book") | | fihris | فهرس | fihris | table of contents / index | | muhtawiyat | المحتويات | al-muḥtawayāt | table of contents (alternate) | | bab | باب | bāb | chapter (indefinite) | | albab | الباب | al-bāb | the chapter (definite) | | fasl | فصل | faṣl | section (indefinite) | | alfasl | الفصل | al-faṣl | the section (definite) | | allahumma | اللهم | Allāhumma | "O Allah" | | rabbana | ربنا | Rabbanā | "Our Lord" | | faidah | فائدة | fā'idah | a benefit / editorial note | | amma-badu | أما بعد | ammā ba'du | classical transitional phrase ("to proceed") | | tahanina | تهانينا | tahānīnā | congratulations | | khatimah | خاتمة | khātimah | conclusion | | intaha | انتهى | intahā | "the end" | | tammat | تمت | tammat | "finished" | | tamma-bi-hamdillah | تم بحمد الله | tamm bi ḥamdillāh | "completed, with praise to Allah" | | waqafa-lillahi-taala | وقف لله تعالى | waqf lillāhi ta'ālā | "endowed for the sake of Allah, exalted is He" |

Contributing

Found an issue or want to request another mark? Open an issue.

Interested in developing this artwork into a full font, or have ideas for collaboration? We'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out via the issues page or at [email protected].

License

CC BY 4.0—Waqf 2026 by Ba Alawi Masters Heritage Trust

About Us: Ba Alawi Masters Heritage Trust is dedicated to the preservation and advancement of the cultural and textual heritage of the Ba'alwi Masters—collecting, authenticating, and digitising manuscripts and making them freely available through digital platforms and emerging technologies. Learn more at baalwi.net.

—@baalwi-id · [email protected] · baalwi.net