Welcome to this tutorial about eiktub™

eiktub™ is a collection of products based on Bikdash Arabic Transliteration Rules (BATR) designed to make it easier for you to write in Arabic without using an Arabic keyboard. If you follow these instructions you will be able to search the web in Arabic, and have a handy online Arabic editor that will help you e-mail and Blog in Arabic. Enjoy!

Write Arabic like you hear it!

Using eiktub™ you type Arabic on the English keyboard "as you hear it". Most letters are easy to guess.

Type the following in the box below:

The letters in the example above are easily remembered because they agree phonetically with the Arabic letters. You must have noticed that short vowels (Harakaat) are represented by a, u, i, long vowels by aa, uu, ii, and ealif maqsuurat' by aaa.

Now let's see how eiktub™ deals with the "heavy" sounding letters that do not exist in English. eiktub™ distinguishes between small letters (like s) and CAPITAL letters (like S). CAPITAL letters represent "heavy" (emphatic) Arabic consonants.

Type the following in the box below:

Note that in eiktub™ s will always be siin, and S will always be Saad, making this way of writing reliable.

The hamzat' in all its shapes is represented by e (or 2 or '). eiktub™ can figure out the correct hamzat' shape based on the rules of dictation. All you have to do is properly enter the vowels.

Type the following in the box below:

Note that Harakaat are needed for eiktub™ to figure out the correct shape of hamzat'.

In eiktub™, the dash has several uses. First it allows writing the combination of two letters that together represent one Arabic charcater.

Type the following in the box below:

Note that without the dash, the sh in yas-har would be interpreted as shiin.

Another use for the dash is to seperate a prefix from a word. This needed for eiktub™ to properly detect the shape of hamzat' that immediately follows a prefix.

Type the following in the box below:

Notice that lileinsaan (without a dash) gives the wrong result.

By now you should be familiar with most of the rules. Let's try a more advanced example.

Type the following in the box below:

You must have figured out that aN, uN, iN represent tanwiin, z' represents z'aal, and t' represents taae marbuutat'. You must have also noticed that eiktub™ allows you to use different ways to type the same letter. In the example above the hamzat' was typed using e, 2 and ' (apostrophe). The Eayn was typed using both E and 3.

That's it! If you need to learn more refer to the Guide for a full description of the transliteration rules, or check out these neatly written examples of: poetry by Al-mutanabbii