Just as in the Western tradition, so also in the Arabic context, frequent repetition of the same word or phrase in the text leads the writer or scribe to use abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms. The difference between acronyms and initialisms is that the former are pronounced as words while the latter are spelled out letter by letter. As far as is known, initialisms were not used in the manuscript age but became a common feature in modern Arabic. Abbreviations are usually designated in various sources as: ʿalāmāt, rumūz, muṣṭalaḥāt (iṣṭilāḥāt), and muxtaṣarāt. Although two import…