Credited to Madagascar. The route by which Arabic writing reached Madagascar is unsettled. Scholars long attributed it to trade contact with Arab Muslims, while more recent studies point to Javanese Muslims, citing likenesses to the Pegon script of Java.
How it began
Sorabe dates from the 15th century and was used to write Malagasy in the Antemoro dialect of the southeast coast of Madagascar. The name joins the Arabic word for writing with the Malagasy word for large. How the script arrived is debated. Researchers long assumed it came through trade contacts with Arab Muslims. More recent studies propose Javanese Muslims, because Sorabe closely resembles Pegon, the Javanese form of Arabic script.
How it works
Sorabe is an abjad based on Arabic letters and written from right to left. Its users adapted the letters to the sounds of Malagasy, a Malayo-Polynesian language. Manuscripts were bound in leather, and texts were named after the color of the skin. Most contain magical formulas, and some record the origins of peoples of the southeast.
How it spread
From the 17th century the script spread across the island. At the end of the 18th century the Merina king Andrianampoinimerina called Antemoro scribes to his court to teach the children there to read and write. The future king Radama I learned Sorabe in this way as a child.
Where it stands today
Malagasy has been written in a Latin alphabet since 1823. A couple of hundred old Sorabe manuscripts survive, the oldest probably written no earlier than the 17th century, and they are among the oldest known African texts in Arabic-derived script held in Western archives.
