Jawi script

Jawi is an Arabic-derived script used to write Malay and several other languages of Southeast Asia. It adapts Arabic letters with additional characters for sounds absent from Arabic.

Arabic alphabet: A writing system used for Arabic and adapted to write many other languages. Jawi inherits its basic letter shapes and right-to-left direction from this script.
Islam in Southeast Asia: The historical spread and development of Islam across Southeast Asian societies. Islamic networks carried Arabic literacy into regions where Jawi took shape.
Malay literature: Literary works composed in Malay across oral, manuscript, and printed traditions. Jawi became a major medium for Malay literary production, especially in manuscript culture.
Rumi script: The Latin-based writing system used to write Malay in Malaysia, Indonesia, and neighboring regions. Rumi is the dominant alternative to Jawi for writing Malay today.
Malay nationalism: Political movements and ideas asserting Malay identity, interests, and self-determination. Jawi became one marker within wider debates over Malay heritage and public identity.
Abjad: A writing system in which consonants are primary and vowels may be omitted or marked secondarily. Jawi retains features of the Arabic abjad while Malay spelling represents vowels more fully.
Islamization of the Malay world: The historical adoption and growth of Islam among Malay-speaking communities. This process created settings in which Arabic-derived Malay writing gained religious and public use.
Kitab Jawi: Islamic religious texts written in Malay using Jawi, especially in Southeast Asian scholarly traditions. These works show Jawi’s role in teaching and transmitting Islamic knowledge.
Pegon script: An Arabic-derived script used to write Javanese and other languages of Java. Pegon shares Jawi’s adaptation of Arabic letters but serves different languages and traditions.
British Malaya: The British-administered territories on the Malay Peninsula before the formation of Malaysia. Colonial administration and schooling helped shift literacy toward Romanized Malay.

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MalaysBroader topic: Jawi reflects the long association between Malay literacy and Islamic scholarship.