I have always been fascinated by word manipulation, so I started this project as a personal challenge.
I manipulate Arabic words and transform them into their meaning, and I made a total of 40 illustrated words. Also, there are pronunciation of those words above every picture that will hopefully help you to learn something new!
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Cat - Qitt
Very informative. I love languages. Thanks for explaining the differences :) This would actually make a nice tattoo :)
Fox - Thaealab
Whale - Hout
The ح letter is a bit tricky as it doesn't have an equivalent in english, but best try would be: Hout.
Dog - Kalb
Coffee - Qahuwa
Duck - Batt
Watermelon - Batikh
Mouse - Fa'ar
Rabbit - Arnab
Cairo - Alqahera
Monkey - Qerrd
Gazelle - Ghazal
Too many horns for a gazelle. This is more a reindeer. Are reindeer classified as gazelles too?
Cheetah - Fahd
@Madelaine the words are written in Arabic script below. The pictures use the Arabic script of the given word as the base, then illustrate the meaning of the word with additional art (as well as some artistic liberties taken with the letters, but this is incredibly common in Arabic Calligraphy)
these are really beautiful. Are they actually based on the derivations of the letters or are you just making pretty art from them?
Peacock - Tawus
Rhino - Khuratiat
I always heard the word khurtit but i dont know what it mean until now Lol ( i thought its kind of insect or something else)
Octopus - Ekhtabout
Crown - Taj
Bear - Dob
Owl - Buma
Freedom - Hurria
Lion - Asad
This one has been manipulated too much, it's difficult to see the letters
Seal - Foqma
Ink - Heabr
Passion - Eashq
Ox - Thur
Here's the thing, I like the idea, quite interesting. I can read Arabic. So I tried to read them without looking at the standard written form. Some of them were perfectly legible, but the rest were unreadable because of the extreme manipulation. Otherwise it's quite useful for learning.
This is brilliant. I've been searching for picture mnemonics to help students correlate Arabic letter shapes to words beginning with that sound, like the Read Write Inc. picture cards for English letters. Would you be interested in working on a product like that? It could be correlated to either English words (for non-native students of Arabic, as in the example URL posted below) or Arabic words, or perhaps both, and maybe multiple versions would be needed for the connectors. tha.png 
Nice and beautiful way to learn a language that doesn't use normal alphabet.
This is so cool! I actually made a very similar post about Chinese just a short while ago (many Chinese characters were actual illustrations in their original forms)! It's fascinating to see how very different languages can still share this kind of visual element. Thanks for sharing!
I love these. Can you draw one for the word "animals"? or "I love animals"?
He made this for me. It says Warrior. I have been fighting brain cancer for 5 years. IMG_1291-5...969417.jpg 
Are these for sale? How do I get my hands on some? I'd really like to frame a few of them as art pieces in my home. Does anyone know how to reach the artist?!?
Are these for sale? I'd love to get my hands on a few as art pieces for my home. Does anyone know how to get in touch with the artist?
I love all of these. I used to do a little calligraphy in high school. I love lettering of all kinds and I've always thought Arabic looked so gorgeous, even though I can't understand it. But I got a little understanding through this, thank you!
A friend wrote my kids name in Arabic many years ago. I had it tattooed as a sign of deap gratitude for the gift. Thank You my beautiful friend
This is cute. But in reality there are over 200 (and perhaps more) words in Arabic that are actually direct descendants of the original Semitic hieroglyphics from which the Arabic written letters were derived. These can clearly be seen without any manipulation. An example: the letter "s" is named "sin", which means teeth, and actually looks like teeth. The letter "j" is "Jamal" which means camel, and actually looks like a camels hump. These are just a few examples. Almost every letter in Arabic (as well as Hebrew) is derived from an earlier hieroglyphic. Thus, the word containing these (and others) ends up looking like the earlier picture writing.
Well, there a lot of competition for write beautiful arab word that we call calligraphy.
They look very nice. Do you have one for a cow by the way. Great job
If everybody knew that the Arabic script is stenographic, but exact at the same time and has a straight spelling system unlike the dumb english or french spelling "systems", everybody would've learnt this beautiful language and its mesmerizing script in the first place.
How about we appreciate it without calling other systems "dumb", thanks.
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This is a very nice mix of Arabic calligraphy and illustration, I love it, BTW I'm learning Arabic calligraphy right now, it takes patience to learn, lots of patience too, but it's very well rewarding.
Actually many people learning arabic can tell you that script is the easy part. Don't insult it, if you know nothing about it!
This is absolutely stunning! Would love to explore working with you to turn this into an Arabic children's book. Please email me on: hajera@shade7.co.uk
Really cool and would be great to see more, this can be used as a fun way to learn arabic, but pronunciation needs to be checked by an arab
Hi Tatiana,im Lebanese,I can assure you they are all pronounced correct. :)
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Very creative. I like it a lot especially the calligraphy like in "giraffe"
thanks for your comment, but the Arabic language and scripts was used long before Islam, prohibition against depictions of living things was mostly in architectural murals and ornaments and replaced with geometrical shapes and calligraphy scripts. but you are right this isn't making Arabic easier, and i asked the community manger to remove that part from the title this is just a typography project in my own language nothing more :D
Load More Replies... Here's the thing, I like the idea, quite interesting. I can read Arabic. So I tried to read them without looking at the standard written form. Some of them were perfectly legible, but the rest were unreadable because of the extreme manipulation. Otherwise it's quite useful for learning.
This is brilliant. I've been searching for picture mnemonics to help students correlate Arabic letter shapes to words beginning with that sound, like the Read Write Inc. picture cards for English letters. Would you be interested in working on a product like that? It could be correlated to either English words (for non-native students of Arabic, as in the example URL posted below) or Arabic words, or perhaps both, and maybe multiple versions would be needed for the connectors. tha.png
Nice and beautiful way to learn a language that doesn't use normal alphabet.
This is so cool! I actually made a very similar post about Chinese just a short while ago (many Chinese characters were actual illustrations in their original forms)! It's fascinating to see how very different languages can still share this kind of visual element. Thanks for sharing!
I love these. Can you draw one for the word "animals"? or "I love animals"?
He made this for me. It says Warrior. I have been fighting brain cancer for 5 years. IMG_1291-5...969417.jpg
Are these for sale? How do I get my hands on some? I'd really like to frame a few of them as art pieces in my home. Does anyone know how to reach the artist?!?
Are these for sale? I'd love to get my hands on a few as art pieces for my home. Does anyone know how to get in touch with the artist?
I love all of these. I used to do a little calligraphy in high school. I love lettering of all kinds and I've always thought Arabic looked so gorgeous, even though I can't understand it. But I got a little understanding through this, thank you!
A friend wrote my kids name in Arabic many years ago. I had it tattooed as a sign of deap gratitude for the gift. Thank You my beautiful friend
This is cute. But in reality there are over 200 (and perhaps more) words in Arabic that are actually direct descendants of the original Semitic hieroglyphics from which the Arabic written letters were derived. These can clearly be seen without any manipulation. An example: the letter "s" is named "sin", which means teeth, and actually looks like teeth. The letter "j" is "Jamal" which means camel, and actually looks like a camels hump. These are just a few examples. Almost every letter in Arabic (as well as Hebrew) is derived from an earlier hieroglyphic. Thus, the word containing these (and others) ends up looking like the earlier picture writing.
Well, there a lot of competition for write beautiful arab word that we call calligraphy.
They look very nice. Do you have one for a cow by the way. Great job
If everybody knew that the Arabic script is stenographic, but exact at the same time and has a straight spelling system unlike the dumb english or french spelling "systems", everybody would've learnt this beautiful language and its mesmerizing script in the first place.
How about we appreciate it without calling other systems "dumb", thanks.
Load More Replies... This is a very nice mix of Arabic calligraphy and illustration, I love it, BTW I'm learning Arabic calligraphy right now, it takes patience to learn, lots of patience too, but it's very well rewarding.
Actually many people learning arabic can tell you that script is the easy part. Don't insult it, if you know nothing about it!
This is absolutely stunning! Would love to explore working with you to turn this into an Arabic children's book. Please email me on: hajera@shade7.co.uk
Really cool and would be great to see more, this can be used as a fun way to learn arabic, but pronunciation needs to be checked by an arab
Hi Tatiana,im Lebanese,I can assure you they are all pronounced correct. :)
Load More Replies... Very creative. I like it a lot especially the calligraphy like in "giraffe"
thanks for your comment, but the Arabic language and scripts was used long before Islam, prohibition against depictions of living things was mostly in architectural murals and ornaments and replaced with geometrical shapes and calligraphy scripts. but you are right this isn't making Arabic easier, and i asked the community manger to remove that part from the title this is just a typography project in my own language nothing more :D
Load More Replies...