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South Arabian Alphabet




The ancient South Arabian alphabet (also known as '''musnad''') branched from the Proto-Sinaitic Alphabet in ca. the 13th Century BC . It was used for writing the Old South Arabian dialects of the Sabaean and Minaean kingdoms on the southern Arabian Peninsula . Early forms dating to the 8th Century BC are found in Babylonia . Its mature form was reached around 500 BC , and its use continued until the 7th Century , when it was displaced by the Arabic Alphabet . The alphabet spread to Ethiopia , where it evolved into the Ge'ez Alphabet , the basis of the modern Amharic , Tigrinya and Tigre alphabet.


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EXTERNAL LINKS

  • http://www.ancientscripts.com/s_arabian.html

  • http://www.mnh.si.edu/epigraphy/e_pre-islamic/musnad-al-janubi.htm

  • http://www.crystalinks.com/arabian.html

  • http://www.omniglot.com/writing/southarabian.htm