Arabic Ligature Heh with Superscript Alef, Initial Form

No. FCD9 is a compatibility form, not a separate Arabic letter.

It represents ه followed by ٰ: the Arabic letter heh plus the superscript alef mark, a small mark written above the letter. Initial form means the joined shape used at the start of a sequence that continues to the next letter.

Arabic script grew from Nabataean writing and is closely related to Syriac and Hebrew. It had its distinctive form by the 4th century CE, and the earliest attested document in classical Arabic is dated 643 CE. Later calligraphic styles include Naskh, a rounded book hand, and Persianate Nastaʿlīq; they change the writing’s visual style, not the letters and mark represented here.

Should I use FCD9 in ordinary Arabic text?

Use هٰ for ordinary text; reserve FCD9 for compatibility work.

Unicode recommends base Arabic characters for text and retains presentation forms for compatibility with older data. Enter ه then ٰ; Arabic shaping handles the mark’s placement and selects the contextual letter shape.

Font design can make هٰ look like a compact ligature or like a heh with a separate mark. If FCD9 occurs in a document, it can point to preserved presentation-level or legacy data; it does not by itself signal a different word.