I thought that this New York Times article (via LanguageHat) was really interesting: an Iraqi-American has devised a simplified version of the Arabic alphabet that can be used in either direction (right-to-left or left-to-right) and in which each character has a single glyph.

It’s probably less significant today than it would have been a few years ago when computers struggled with anything other than simple fonts, but it is nonetheless a useful invention. It doesn’t seek to supplant the beauty of traditional Arabic calligraphy; rather, it adds an alternative means of using the language.

The letter forms have an elegant appearance, somewhat reminiscent of Egyptian Hieratic script to my eyes.

Of course, my opinions should be take with a pinch of salt, given that I don’t know any Arabic—either spoken or written.