Paleo-Arabic

], Paleo-Arabic inscriptions have been discovered across the Arabian Peninsula including: South Arabia (the Christian Hima texts),[6] near Taif in the Hejaz[7] and in the Tabuk region of northwestern Saudi Arabia.

[8] Most Paleo-Arabic inscriptions were written by Christians, as indicated by their vocabulary, the name of the signing author, or by the inscription/drawing of a cross associated with the writing.

[9] The term "Paleo-Arabic" was first used by Christian Robin in the form of the French expression "paléo-arabe".

According to Ahmad Al-Jallad and Hythem Sidky, Paleo-Arabic can be distinguished from the script that occurs in later periods by a number of orthographic features, including:[11] Known Paleo-Arabic inscriptions fall into one of three categories:[7] As such, they reflect the dominance attained by the spread of monotheism in pre-Islamic Arabia from the fourth to sixth centuries in the pre-Islamic period.

The current list of known Paleo-Arabic texts and inscriptions is given in a table and appendix of a paper jointly written by Ahmad Al-Jallad and Hythem Sidky.