Novi Pazar

Fuad Baćićanin Museum „Ras” Novi Pazar Arabica, a Modified Arabic Alphabet in Several Century Use with Us Abstract: As the Ottoman State expanded on the Balkan, thus the Arabic alphabet appeared with us. Firstly used by the administrative Ottoman management and their administration, this alphabet took its place by the time in written communication and it was so spread out, it had to be adjusted to our sound system. In the beginning period, the Ottoman alphabet was used, the Ottoman version of the Arabic alphabet, so as later on, each author for himself, adjusted the graphemes to our sound system. All these adjusted forms of the alphabet had sense but they did not have a wide public support. One of the reformers of the Arabic alphabet and its adjustment to our sound system was Arif Brkanic Sarajlija from Novi Pazar. Reis Dzemaludin Causevic modified the Arabic alphabet and made a unique alphabet of Arabica, and it was widely used in public. All printed books were written in Causevic's Arabica, so-called old one or Maktab's one. The Arabic alphabet, i.e. Arabica was used for several centuries in this speaking area. The Muslim population completely accepted it since it was the Quran alphabet, either. At the beginning of XX century, Arabica was forbidden, but with individuals, mostly religious persons, it remained in its permanent use. With this paper, we want to direct the attention onto Arabica, one of the three alphabets used in our area in their widest. Key words: Arabica, Arabic alphabet, Ottoman State, Turkish language, Dzemaludin Causevic, Arif Sarajlija

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Fuad Baćićanin