Maktoob (Arabic: مكتوب) was an online services company founded in Amman (Jordan).

[citation needed] Maktoob was founded in 1999 by Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury, offering a webmail service featuring Arabic language support—a unique feature at the time when other free email services lacked such capability.

[citation needed] In June 2005, the UAE-based private equity house Abraaj Capital purchased 40% of the company shares in a $5 million deal.

[4] The rationale for such an acquisition (according to Abraaj's website[citation needed]) was that Maktoob has a large user base (claimed to be more than 4 million) and, according to marketing literature, "a dominant online payment option cashU and a strong brand name.

It has established the first Arab online auction site Souq.com which will benefit from leveraging the large community network.

"[citation needed] In April 2006, Maktoob acquired 80% of the popular Arab sports website Sport4ever.com.

[5] In December 2007, Abraaj sold its share to Tiger Global Management with an internal rate of return of 75%.