Cursive Forms of Letters

Persian writing system is inherently cursive. Letters are written joined together from right to left in a flowing manner. They do not have small and capital forms but positional forms. They take different forms depending on their position and neighboring letters in a word. A letter can have up to four forms: isolated, initial, medial and final:

Not all letters have four forms. The letter ⟨ ب ⟩ is among the letters that have distinct isolated, initial, medial and final forms.

Analogous Letters

Analogous letters share the same basic shape. For example, the letters ⟨ ب پ ت ث ⟩ derive from the same shape and only differ in the number and the place of dots. Analogous letters have identical cursive forms.

Grouping analogous letters can help you in learning their cursive forms.

Letters that have unique shapes in Persian script are as follows:

Disjoining Letters

Letters typically join each other on both sides but seven letters break the cursive connection and do not attach to their following letter. Disjoining letters are:

Disjoining letters have identical isolated and initial forms. Medial and final forms are also identical.

Disjoining letters force their following letter to appear as if there are no letters before it. For example, in ⟨ ابر ⟩ the disjoining letter ⟨ ا ⟩ forces ⟨ ب ⟩ to appear in its initial form ⟨ بـ ⟩ rather than its medial form. In ⟨ خراب ⟩ the letter ⟨ ا ⟩ forces ⟨ ب ⟩ to appear in its isolated form as if it is the only letter of the word.

Table of Cursive Forms

The following table lists all the cursive forms used in Persian along with samples for each form. The letters ⟨ آ ⟩ and ⟨ أ ⟩ derive from ⟨ ا ⟩. Similarly, ⟨ ؤ ⟩ derives from ⟨ و ⟩ and ⟨ ئ ⟩ derives from ⟨ ی ⟩. These are comparable to extended Latin letterssuch as ⟨ â ⟩, ⟨ ï ⟩ and ⟨ ñ ⟩.

Ligatures

The most important ligature is ⟨ لا ⟩ which forms when ⟨ ا ⟩ comes after ⟨ ل ⟩. This ligature makes the combination more legible.

The following table shows examples of this ligature in various positions. Since the letter ⟨ ا ⟩ is a disjoining letter, the ligature ⟨ لا ⟩ is also disjoining.