Writing

The Tatar sacral writings were predominantly written in the Arabic alphabet. It was also used in other domains e.g. on the tombstones and even in the private correspondence (signatures on the documents) (Drozd – Dziekan – Majda 2000: 21Drozd – Dziekan – Majda 2000 / komentarz/comment/r /
Drozd, Andrzej & Marek M. Dziekan & Tadeusz Majda 2000. Piśmiennictwo i Muhiry Tatarów polsko-litewskich. Warszawa: Res Publica Multiethnica.
). They used numbers of Indo-Arabic graphic system, and since the 19th century Arabic.
Since the 16th century in the Tatar manuscripts, the Arabic script co-existed with the Latin script, and since the 19th century - also Cyrillic Script. The Arabic alphabet had to be gradually adapted to transcribe the Slavic languages, which the Tatars spoke every day. For example, some additional letters had to be added and the phonetic value of some letters had to be changed. It sometimes resulted in a few letters denoting the same sound (Drozd – Dziekan – Majda 2000: 22Drozd – Dziekan – Majda 2000 / komentarz/comment/r /
Drozd, Andrzej & Marek M. Dziekan & Tadeusz Majda 2000. Piśmiennictwo i Muhiry Tatarów polsko-litewskich. Warszawa: Res Publica Multiethnica.
).
Style of scripts varied depending on the type of a text: to write texts in Arabic and Turkic classical script was used (nasi), while the Slavic languages were written in linear variation of this style (see: Tale about Moses conversation with Allah).