KUM WRITING, an ancient form of Arabic characters, which came into use shortly before Mohammed, and was chiefly current among the inhabitants of northern Arabia, while those of the south-western parts employed the Himjaritie or Mosnad (clipped) character. The Kufic is taken from the old Syriac character (Estrangelo), and is said to have been first introduced by Moramer or Morar ben Morra of Anber. The first copies of the Koran were written in it, and Kufa, a city in Irak-Arabi (paslislic of Bagdad), being the one which contained the most expert and numerous copyists, the writing itself was called after it. The alphabet was arranged like the Hebrew and Syriac (whence its designation, AIIUaD HeVeS), and this order, although now superseded by another, is still used for numerical purposes. The Kufic character, of a somewhat clumsy and ungainly shape, began to fall into disuse after about 1000 A.D.; Elm Morin of Bagdad (d. 938 A.D.) having invented the current or so-called Neshki (naslialc, to cop:A character, which was still further improved by Elm Bawwab(d. 1031), and which now—deservedly,
as one of the prettiest and easiest—reigne supreme in cast and west. It is only in MSS. of die Koran, and in title pages, that the Kutic is still employed. A peculiar kind of the Kittle is the so-called Kartnatian—of a somewhat more slender shape—in which several inscriptions have been met with both in Arabia, and in Dauphiny, Sicily, etc., and which is also found on a coronation' mantle preserved in Nuremberg. The Kufic, is written with a style, while for the Neshki, slit reeds arc employed. Different kinds of the latter character (in whh4 the alphabet is arranged according to the optward_sintilarity of the letters) are the Moresque or Maghreb (western), the Diviim (royal—only- employed for decrees, etc.), the Talik.(chiefly used in Persian), the Thsoletki (threefold or very large character), Jakuthi, Itihani, etc.