The Arabic script is the writing system used for writing Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa, such as Azerbaijani, Sindhi, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Kurdish, Lurish, Urdu, Mandinka, and others.[1] Until the 16th century, it was also used to write some texts in Spanish. Additionally, Turkish, prior to the Turkish language reform, was written in Perso-Arabic script.[2] It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by the number of countries using it and the third by the number of users, after Latin and Chinese characters.[3]