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Nabataean script
Script type	Abjad
Period	2nd century BC to 4th century AD
Direction	Right-to-left script
Languages	Nabataean Aramaic Nabataean Arabic
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs[1] Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Nabataean script
Child systems	Arabic script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Nbat (159), ​Nabataean
Unicode
Unicode alias	Nabataean
Unicode range	U+10880–U+108AF Final Accepted Script Proposal

The Nabataean script is an abjad (consonantal alphabet) that was used to write Nabataean Aramaic and Nabataean Arabic from the second century BC onwards.^[2][3] Important inscriptions are found in Petra (in Jordan), the Sinai Peninsula (now part of Egypt), Bosra and Namara (in Syria), and other archaeological sites including Abdah (in Israel) and Mada'in Saleh (Hegra) (in Saudi Arabia).

Nabataean is only known through inscriptions and, more recently, a small number of papyri.^[4] It was first deciphered in 1840 by Eduard Friedrich Ferdinand Beer.^[4] 6,000 – 7,000 Nabataean inscriptions have been published, of which more than 95% are mostly short inscriptions or graffiti, and the vast majority are undated, post-Nabataean or from outside the core Nabataean territory.^[4] A majority of inscriptions considered Nabataean were found in Sinai,^[4] and another 4,000 – 7,000 such Sinaitic inscriptions remain unpublished.^[5] Prior to the publication of Nabataean papyri, the only substantial corpus of detailed Nabataean text were the 38 funerary inscriptions from Mada'in Salih (Hegra), discovered and published by Charles Montagu Doughty, Charles Huber, Philippe Berger and Julius Euting in 1884-85.^[4][6]

The alphabet is descended from the Aramaic alphabet. In turn, a cursive form of Nabataean developed into the Arabic alphabet from the 4th century,^[3] which is why Nabataean's letterforms are intermediate between the more northerly Semitic scripts (such as the Aramaic-derived Hebrew) and those of Arabic.

• Julius Euting, Nabatäische Inschriften aus Arabien, Berlin, 1885 (online; plates available here).
• Euting, Julius (1891). Sinaïtische Inschriften (in German). G. Reimer. ISBN 978-3-11-108880-8. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, 1902 Pars 2, Tomus 1, Fasc 3: Inscriptiones Aramaicae
• Michael E. Stone, 1992. Rock Inscriptions and Graffiti Project: Catalogue of Inscriptions
• Roche, Marie-Jeanne (2019). Inscriptions nabatéennes datées de la fin du IIe siècle avant notre ère au milieu du IVe siècle (in French). Leuven. ISBN 978-90-429-3882-3. OCLC 1229107538.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• 
  Petra inscriptions as of 1902
• 
  Sinai Peninsula inscriptions as of 1902
• 
  Wadi Mukattab inscriptions as of 1902

The Nabataean alphabet (U+10880–U+108AF) was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.

• Ancient North Arabian script
• Ancient South Arabian script
• Nabataean Aramaic
• Nabataean Arabic

• The Digital Corpus of the Nabataean and Developing Arabic Inscriptions (DiCoNab)
• The Nabataean script: a bridge between the Aramaic and Arabic alphabets.