Arabic Letter Khāʾ Initial Form

Type خ in ordinary Arabic text. Arabic letters change shape as they connect to neighboring letters, so a word-initial خ can appear as ﺧ without storing a separate character.

ﺧ is a pre-shaped compatibility character retained for older systems. Storing it instead of خ means the text contains different data, which can cause problems for searching and exchanging text even when both look alike on screen.

What does ﺧ mean?

It is an initial form of the Arabic letter khāʾ, خ. The letter represents a consonant commonly written “kh” in Latin letters; “initial” describes its position in a connected word, not a different sound.

Arabic writing developed from Nabataean Aramaic. A transitional Nabataeo-Arabic phase is dated between the third and fifth centuries CE, and inscriptions with a recognizably Arabic repertoire appear by the late fifth century CE. The Zuhayr inscription, dated 644 CE, is later evidence for Arabic writing, not the origin date of this positional form.

Khāʾ is part of a letter family that includes jīm and ḥāʾ. Research on Qurʾanic manuscripts connects this family with Nabataean gimel and ḥet; in Nabataean, ḥet could represent sounds that became Arabic ḥāʾ and khāʾ. Dot placement distinguishes the Arabic letters: khāʾ has a dot above, jīm below, and ḥāʾ none. Persian and Urdu also use خ in Arabic-derived writing, though pronunciation and use depend on the language.

Why does ﺧ look like ح or ج?

Their related shapes are distinguished by dots. Arabic خ has a dot above, ح has no dot, and ج has a dot below; they represent different consonants.

In Qurʾanic manuscripts, jīm and ḥāʾ/khāʾ were sometimes distinguished by shape, while later handwriting could bring their shapes closer together. The dots help distinguish them in modern Arabic writing.