Old Arabic

Old Arabic
የበ𐪇Ⲟ
اللغة العربية القديمة
Epitaph of Imru al-Qays I ibn Amr (328 AD)
Pronunciation[ʕr͇b]
RegionNorthwestern Arabian Peninsula and the southern Levant
EraEarly 1st millennium BCE to 7th century CE
Early form
Safaitic
Hismaic
Dadanitic
Nabataean
Phoenician
Arabic
Greek
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone

Old Arabic is the name for any Arabic language or dialect continuum before Islam. Various forms of Old Arabic are attested in scripts like Safaitic, Hismaic, Nabatean, and even Greek.

Alternatively, the term has been used synonymously with "Paleo-Arabic" to describe the form of the Arabic script in the fifth and sixth centuries.