Arab culture relies primarily on the Quran - the holy book of Muslims. Due to the fact that Islam is the youngest of the world's religions, the number of signs with a special subtext in it is slightly less than, for example, in Christianity. Most of the Arabic symbols are in one way or another connected with religion and are mentioned in the Qur'an or in its commentaries, however, there are other sources: science, historical events, borrowings.
General remarks
Arabic symbols are often abstract, because in accordance with the laws of Islam, graphic and sculptural images of animals and people are strictly prohibited. For this reason, a significant part of the symbolic images distributed in Europe for a long time was not welcomed and was not understood in the Arab world.
However, over time, the norms regarding the image of animals were somewhat relaxed: for example, in Arabic calligraphy, drawings of lions, eagles and other animals can be found.
In general, among the Arabic characters, three particularly interesting categories can be distinguished: letters, numbers, and stylized images that have a special subtext.
Writing
Among the Arabic characters, letters occupy an important place. Over more than a thousand years of the existence of this culture, a whole host of ways of writing letters have been developed, ranging from fonts like Gothic and ending with those that simply cannot be given analogues in European culture.
For many centuries, the art of calligraphy has been developed in the East - it is not for nothing that the expression “Arabic script” exists, because letters are sometimes intertwined, forming real pictures in which an outside observer may not recognize the script at all.
The letters, of which there are 28 in the alphabet, adorn the walls of mosques, books, clothes. Within the Arab culture, there are currents within which each letter has its own internal meaning, connecting it with a particular planet, element, number. This approach has much in common with alchemy, the name of which, by the way, also came from Arabic.
Figures
Arabic numerals are symbols for designating numbers used to record the quantitative characteristics of objects and to work with them. They are abstract concepts and were developed in the historical period of the existence of mankind.
Arabic numerals are importantly different, for example, from Roman ones. The source of the latter was iconism: one object - one dash, two objects - two dashes. Arabic numbers are purely symbolic, require less space for recording, and allow faster mathematical operations. In addition, the concept of zero exists in this system, the discovery of which became an important milestone in the history of mathematics.
However, it is worth noting that these figures came from India, from where they were borrowed in the era of the "golden age" of Arab civilization. The merit of the Arabs lies primarily in the fact that they perceived the achievements of other cultures and developed them, spreading around the world.
Images
Perhaps the most famous image among the Arabic characters is the crescent.
There are many hypotheses about the origin of this symbol, but there are reliable facts. During the period of the origin and formation of Islam, the crescent was not used either on banners and flags, or in the design of any religious buildings. In battle, the flags were monochromatic canvases, today associated with the colors of Islam - these are green, black and white.
Only much later, in the 15th century, when Constantinople was taken by the Ottoman Turks, the sign of the city - a crescent moon with a star - penetrated the Muslim culture and turned into an Arabic symbol, consolidating itself initially as a sign of the Ottoman Empire, and later of Islam as a whole.
The second characteristic feature associated with the East is the widespread use of ornaments.
Ornament
Among the Arabic symbols, two varieties of ornamental patterns should be mentioned : geometric and floral.
In the first case, the pattern is formed by the intersection of geometric shapes, each of which has its own symbolic meaning. Images are looped, i.e. the same fragment can be repeated countless times in all directions. Such drawings often adorn the domes of mosques and minarets - they are designed to remind of the exaltation of the spiritual and divine.
Floral ornament is often used in the design of small architectural forms, ceramics. Such patterns focus on the details of the world, thus bringing people closer to nature.
Finally
A careful examination of Arabic symbols and their meanings, as well as symbols of any other culture, is a laborious and time-consuming task. However, after a superficial acquaintance with the East, it becomes clear - no matter how long the study takes, the cognition process will be interesting and will cause a lot of positive emotions.