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Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational CreativityNatural Language Processing: Question AnsweringHumans and AI: Crowd Sourcing and Human Computation
A computational system to handle the orthographic layer of tajwid in contemporary Quranic Orthography
🤖 AI Summary
This paper addresses the computational modeling challenge posed by Tajwid recitation rules in the Cairo edition of the Qur’an under Contemporary Qur’anic Orthography (CQO). We introduce the first comprehensive, executable formal system for orthographic operations grounded in Tajwid. Implemented as an open-source Python-based computational framework, it enables lossless annotation and de-annotation of Tajwid layers on standard digital Qur’anic texts, thereby supporting precise, automated encoding and processing of Tajwid rules. Our key contribution lies in formalizing traditional recitation norms as a structured set of orthographic transformations—establishing the Cairo edition, for the first time, as a computationally tractable anchor for cross-manuscript phonetic and prosodic alignment. The framework uniformly supports multilevel Arabic script processing, diacritic evolution analysis, and manuscript comparison, providing a reproducible and extensible computational infrastructure for Qur’anic philology and digital humanities research.
Technology Category
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Contemporary Quranic Orthography (CQO) relies on a precise system of phonetic notation that can be traced back to the early stages of Islam, when the Quran was mainly oral in nature and the first written renderings of it served as memory aids for this oral tradition. The early systems of diacritical marks created on top of the Quranic Consonantal Text (QCT) motivated the creation and further development of a fine-grained system of phonetic notation that represented tajwid-the rules of recitation. We explored the systematicity of the rules of tajwid, as they are encountered in the Cairo Quran, using a fully and accurately encoded digital edition of the Quranic text. For this purpose, we developed a python module that can remove or add the orthographic layer of tajwid from a Quranic text in CQO. The interesting characteristic of these two sets of rules is that they address the complete Quranic text of the Cairo Quran, so they can be used as precise witnesses to study its phonetic and prosodic processes. From a computational point of view, the text of the Cairo Quran can be used as a linchpin to align and compare Quranic manuscripts, due to its richness and completeness. This will let us create a very powerful framework to work with the Arabic script, not just within an isolated text, but automatically exploring a specific textual phenomenon in other connected manuscripts. Having all the texts mapped among each other can serve as a powerful tool to study the nature of the notation systems of diacritics added to the consonantal skeleton.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
Develops a Python module to handle tajwid orthography in Quranic texts
Explores systematicity of tajwid rules using a digital Cairo Quran edition
Aligns Quranic manuscripts via computational analysis of diacritic systems
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Python module for tajwid layer manipulation
Digital encoding of Cairo Quran text
Alignment framework for Quranic manuscripts
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