Arabic Letter Kaf, Initial Form

It is Arabic kaf in a word-initial joining shape. Read it as the letter /k/; the shape marks its position in connected writing, not a separate meaning.

This is a digital form of a much older letter. Kaf's related forms pass through Phoenician and Aramaic traditions into Nabataean and Arabic writing; Hebrew and Syriac also have related letters. Nabataean was a form of Aramaic writing, and Arabic script developed from that tradition.

Arabic writing appears in Nabataean script at ʿEn ʿAvdat, dated 88/9–125/6 CE. The earliest dated inscriptions with a full Arabic-script alphabet are placed in the late fifth century CE. Kaf's practical role was to write the /k/ sound. One account connects its old name with the palm of a hand; another connects the shape with an arm-like hieroglyph. Neither makes this letter mean “palm.”

Why does Arabic kaf change shape?

Arabic letters take joining shapes from their neighbors. The base letter ك can appear isolated, at the end, in the middle, or at the beginning of a connected word. Fonts may draw those shapes differently, even though the letter stays the same.

The explicit form ﻛ is kept for compatibility with older encodings. For ordinary Arabic text, software shapes the base letter automatically; a separate character for each position is unnecessary.

If ﻛ appears by itself, it is usually best read as a form sample or compatibility character. The literal form is useful in legacy data or a rendering test; editable Arabic text normally uses ك.