Ottoman Turkish Alphabet

The Ottoman Turkish alphabet (Ottoman Turkish: الفبا elifbâ ) was the version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet that was used for the Ottoman Turkish language during the time of the Ottoman Empire and in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, until the adoption of the new Turkish alphabet, derived from the Latin script. The change was formalized by the Turkish Republic's law number 1353, the Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, passed on November 1, 1928. The law went into effect on January 1, 1929, making the use of the new alphabet compulsory in all public communications.

Ottoman Turkish was primarily written in the Ottoman Turkish script. It was not, however, unknown for Ottoman Turkish to also be written using the Armenian script; for instance, the first novel to be written in the Ottoman Empire was 1851's Akabi, written in the Armenian script by Vartan Pasha. Similarly, when the Armenian Düzoğlu family managed the Ottoman mint during the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid I (r. 1839–61), they kept records in Ottoman Turkish, but used the Armenian script. Other scripts, too — such as the Greek alphabet and the Rashi script of Hebrew — were used by non-Muslim groups to write the language, since the Arabic alphabet was identified with Islam. On the other hand, for example, Greek-speaking Muslims would write Greek using the Ottoman Turkish script.