May 18, 2026
Support for additional Arabic ligatures
As part of Monotype's ongoing work to update several Arabic font families with support for the Saudi Riyal and forthcoming Dirham currency symbols, we have also been reviewing recent requests for additional Arabic ligature support across a number of Arabic typefaces.
Following consultation with additional Arabic typography experts, we are proceeding with support for the following characters:
Ligature | Unicode | Arabic Ligature Name |
| U+FDFD | Bismillah |
| U+FDFA | Salawat |
| U+FDFB | Jallajalalouhou |
Note: A ligature is a single glyph that represents a combination of two or more characters. Ligatures are used to improve readability, aesthetics, or typographic accuracy, or to represent a conventional phrase as a single encoded unit.
Affected font families
Basis Grotesque Arabic is the first font family to receive this update, targeted for release by June 26, 2026. The update will include:
Support for three Arabic ligature characters (Bismillah, Salawat, and Jallajalalouhou)
The Saudi Riyal currency symbol
More than 15 Arabic font families are included in this update. All affected families will receive the same ligature additions by the end of October 2026.
Note: Dirham currency symbol update
The Unicode encoding for the Dirham currency symbol is not yet finalised. It is expected to be confirmed with the Unicode 18 release, planned for release in September 2026.
Once the encoding is confirmed, Basis Grotesque Arabic and other affected font families will receive a further update (re-release) to support the official Dirham character.