Gateway to Arabic (Miftah al-Arabiyya) Handwriting Book (Dr. Imran Hamza Alawiye)
Description
ISBN: 0954083350
Author: Dr. Imran Hamza Alawiye; Ibrahim al-Dusouqi (calligraphy); Zaynab Alawiye (designer)
Publisher: Anglo-Arabic Graphics Ltd. (December 2003)
Pages: 68 Binding: Paperback
Description from the publisher:
Gateway to Arabic is a well-structured, progressive course that has been carefully designed to teach Arabic in a non-Arabic-speaking environment to learners from a broad age range. The series has become well established in Britain and America and is used by a great many Muslim schools and madrasahs, as well as being stocked by the majority of Islamic bookshops in Britain. It is also well suited to individuals wishing to engage in self-study of the language.
This is a new curriculum series and has had remarkable success in its first year of usage. A well-structured progressive course designed to teach Arabic to students in a non-Arabic speaking environment. It contains a wealth of exercises to reinforce vocabulary and the understanding and application of grammar. Extensive research and piloting ensures that materials are easy to learn from and to teach. Books are designed to cater to the Muslim child learning Arabic in English speaking countries.
The series is intended to take the student from having no knowledge of Arabic, all the way up to GCSE level (the U.K.’s General Certificate in Secondary Education) and beyond.
The Gateway to Arabic Handwriting Book has been written as part of the "Gateway to Arabic" series with a view to giving students the opportunity to learn, practise and acquire proficiency in a fluent style of Arabic handwriting. It is recommended that students should already have completed at least Book One of the Gateway series and be familiar with the Arabic alphabet before embarking upon this book. Although a number of handwriting styles are used in the Middle East, the style taught in this book, namely ruk'ah, is the most widespread and the easiest to learn. Compared to the printed style of Arabic, which is termed naskh, ruk'ah offers the advantage of being much quicker to write.
The book has been organised so that identical naskh and ruk'ah texts appear on facing pages for ease of comparison and contrast. The first section sets out the letters of the Arabic alphabet in all their forms: initial, medial, final and isolate. The precise direction and sequence of pen movements for each letter have been clearly indicated through the use of numbered arrows.
Having completed the presentation of the alphabet in all its forms, the book then provides the student with the chance to practise copying complete words and phrases, most of which would already be familiar to the Muslim student. A further opportunity for the reinforcement of handwriting skills is given through the copying of selective ayat (verses of the Qur'an). A translation of these verses is included on the page on which they appear.
