Thaana letter Faafu

It represents Dhivehi's f consonant. By itself, ފ is a consonant base, not a full syllable. A vowel sign called a fili supplies the vowel; sukun marks the base when no vowel follows.

The early record is not pinned to one date. One Dhivehi reference cites Thaana inscriptions on mosque doorposts in Kanditheemu dated 1599 and 1611; a Maldives National University overview says the earliest records it found date to 1705, and places Thaana's development in the late 17th century.

Faafu's form comes from 𑥒, the digit two in Dhives Akuru, an older left-to-right script used for Dhivehi. In Dhives Akuru, adding a dot to the p letter made an f letter. Thaana's second letter group draws on Dhives Akuru numerals; its first nine letters draw on Arabic numerals. Thaana writes right to left and uses vowel marks influenced by Arabic. Dotted Thaana letters for Arabic sounds began appearing in the 1950s and became standard around the end of the 20th century. Thaana briefly gave way to Latin Akuru, a Dhivehi spelling system in Latin letters, in 1977; it returned as the official script in 1978.

Is ފ Arabic?

No. ފ is a Thaana letter used to write Dhivehi. Arabic influenced Thaana's writing direction and vowel marks, but this character belongs to Thaana.