User:LockeJames/sandbox

***Note to peer reviewer: This sandbox contains additions to the existing Wikipedia article: Hijazi script

The Hejaz Arabic: ٱلْحِجَاز‎, is a region located in north-western Arabia the coastal line to the Red Sea.This region Is most famous for the two holy cites Mecca and Medina. (from Arabic: الحرمين‎, dual form of haram, meaning "The Two Forbidden Sanctuaries" (الحرمين الشريفين) The Islamic faith holds these cities along with the al-Aqsa Mosque, are sacred holy sites . The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca in the year 571 CE and was reveled revelation by the angel Gabriel on mount Noor in the cave Hira and later migrated to Medina in 622 CE marking the start of the Hijri era. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the location where the Prophet Muhammad journeyed from Mecca to Jerusalem and back in one night also known in Arabic as Isra and Mi'raj. However prior to this the Prophet Abraham who venerated by Muslims, Christians, and the Jewish faith "Abrahamic faiths" migrated from modern day Iraq to the Hijaz along with his son Isma'il and together they constructed the Kaaba which Muslims believe is the first house of worship on earth. The pre-Islamic Arabian society never had a formal government. The Hijaz was stationed in the middle of the Roman and Persian empires. The Hijaz stayed barren with no major architecture or civilization and was stagnate for thousands of years however the Arabs often belittles these societies and praised themselves of the bases that they were given the eloquent Arabic language. The Arabian Peninsula uncultivable and not one river ran through with exception of Yemen to the south of the Hijaz.

Pre-Islamic Arabs were historically a nomadic people made up of tribes and clans. The discovery of  Zamzam in Mecca is believed to be where the first group of Arabs became urbanized. The Arabs had an oral culture resulting in a lack of primary source material from pre-Islamic Arabia. Written langugage was usued rarley. sometimes travlers roaming the deserts carved into animal skins or bones usually an incocation to the gods. The origin of the Arabic language is still up for debated however the alphabet of the Arabic language which consists of 29 phonemes is believed to have derived from Nabataean.These 16 letters evolved into the 29 letters of Hijazi script. Introducing more letters allowed more sounds to represented and longer texts could be expressed with ease. Nabateabean script evovlved over times with the letter shapes ligatures joined from top to bottom producing Hijazi script.The Arabs in the Hijaz valued the eloquence and thoroughness of the language and spent the nights telling stories about their lineages in the form of poetry. They also would tell the latest news through these poems, describe past wars and boast about their forefathers. A mans status was elevated by his ability to orate spellbinding poems to his tribe. They would frequently say in in these pre-Islamic poems "Romans and the Persians have architecture however, we have language". Most of these poems were never written, only 3 pre-Islamic inscriptions in fully formed Hijazi script are with us today. The Zabad trilingual inscription,  Hawran, Jabal Usays (528 CE) and Harran (568 CE)

The oldest Quranic manuscript we have today is written in Hijazi script. By nature he Quran was to be memorized and recited orally. In Arabic the word Quran means recited and many of the Prophet Muhammad's companions memorized the entire Quran yet, while the Quran was being revealed to the Prophet Muhammad his companions would write some verses down on bones or animal skins, pieces of leather, and palm leafs. The Quran was not compiled from cover to cover in book form until after the death of the Prophet Muhammad during the caliphate of Abu Bakr as-Siddeeq. He suggested that Zayd bin Thabit bring all of the (suhuf) or scrolls with Quranic verses on them and checked them for accuracy comparing it with the memorization of many of companions who memorized the entire Quran. After the death of Abu Bakr's his successor Umar gave the task to his daughter Hafsah who was also the wife of the Prophet to check the scrolls. Finally during the caliphate of Uthman Ibn Affan the full standardized (mushaf) was completed. This first standardized mushuf was transcribed in Hijazi script by: Zays Ibn Thabit, Abdullah Ibn az-Zubayr, Saee'd Ibn al-Aws and Abdur-Rahman Ibn al-Harith Ibn Hisham all companions of the Prophet Muhammad. This Hijazi script is slightly different compared to modern day Quranic script because it lacked dots or vowels. This was because at this time Muslims in the Hijaz region and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula spoke the Pure Arabic language with Arabic being their mother tongue they were masters of its pronunciation and meanings. It is believed that around 690 CE Abd al-Malik introduced dots and vowels to the Hijazi script when Islam expanded into non-Arab lands so the people could read and understand the Quran properly.