Arabic Vocabulary Lists > Abjad Calculator
An abjad calculator adds up the number values of the Arabic letters in a word or name. In the common Mashriqi order alif is 1, yāʾ 10, qāf 100 and ghayn 1,000, so بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم (bismillāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm, in the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most compassionate) totals 786.
Abjad total, Mashriqi values
0
In the other order: 0 (Maghribi)
Written as abjad numerals: —
The 28 letters in abjad order, with their value
Hamza forms, tāʾ marbūṭa, alif maqṣūra, shadda and space
Counting rules (change these if your source counts differently)
Always: أ إ ٱ count as alif (1), ؤ as wāw (6), ئ and ى as yāʾ (10). Short vowels, tanwīn, sukūn, the dagger alif and tatweel count 0.
The total updates as you type. Short vowels never change it, so you can paste fully vowelled text. Spaces and punctuation are skipped; Latin letters and digits are listed as not counted.
Abjad value table: Mashriqi and Maghribi
Twenty-two letters have the same value in both orders. In the Maghribi order six change: ṣād is 60, ḍād 90, sīn 300, ẓāʾ 800, ghayn 900 and shīn 1,000 (bold in the table). The Maghribi order was used in North Africa and al-Andalus. Values are from Wikipedia's Abjad numerals tables, and Frank Lewis's overview of the abjad system gives the same values and the same six changes. Before publishing we checked the value table against both, and each worked total against the source that states it. Transliteration uses macrons and the half-ring marks ʾ and ʿ.
| Letter | Name | Mashriqi | Maghribi |
|---|---|---|---|
| ا | ʾalif | 1 | 1 |
| ب | bāʾ | 2 | 2 |
| ج | jīm | 3 | 3 |
| د | dāl | 4 | 4 |
| ه | hāʾ | 5 | 5 |
| و | wāw | 6 | 6 |
| ز | zāy | 7 | 7 |
| ح | ḥāʾ | 8 | 8 |
| ط | ṭāʾ | 9 | 9 |
| ي | yāʾ | 10 | 10 |
| ك | kāf | 20 | 20 |
| ل | lām | 30 | 30 |
| م | mīm | 40 | 40 |
| ن | nūn | 50 | 50 |
| س | sīn | 60 | 300 |
| ع | ʿayn | 70 | 70 |
| ف | fāʾ | 80 | 80 |
| ص | ṣād | 90 | 60 |
| ق | qāf | 100 | 100 |
| ر | rāʾ | 200 | 200 |
| ش | shīn | 300 | 1000 |
| ت | tāʾ | 400 | 400 |
| ث | thāʾ | 500 | 500 |
| خ | khāʾ | 600 | 600 |
| ذ | dhāl | 700 | 700 |
| ض | ḍād | 800 | 90 |
| ظ | ẓāʾ | 900 | 800 |
| غ | ghayn | 1000 | 900 |
The order is older than Arabic. Hebrew and Aramaic ran in the same a-b-g-d sequence with 22 letters, ending at taw, 400. Arabic kept it and gave its six extra letters 500 to 1,000. The Mashriqi order is memorised as أبجد هوز حطي كلمن سعفص قرشت ثخذ ضظغ (abjad hawwaz ḥuṭṭī kalaman saʿfaṣ qarashat thakhadh ḍaẓagh), words the Encyclopaedia Iranica entry on abjad calls pronounceable but meaningless. Dictionaries use the order on our Arabic alphabet chart, which groups letters by shape and is never used for numbers.
How the calculator counts
Each written letter counts once, by its shape. These defaults follow the rules published with abjadcalc.com and Lewis:
- أ إ ٱ count as alif, 1; ؤ counts as wāw, 6, and ئ as yāʾ, 10.
- ة (tāʾ marbūṭa) counts 5, like the ه it looks like. ى (alif maqṣūra) counts 10, like yāʾ.
- A letter with shadda counts once: Lewis gives محمد (Muhammad) as 92.
- Short vowels, tanwīn, sukūn, dagger alif and tatweel count 0.
Where practice varies, "Counting rules" in the tool has a setting. abjadcalc.com counts a lone hamza ء as 1 but says some guides leave it out, and counts alif madda آ as 1 where some count 2. Wikipedia gives the Persian letters پ چ ژ گ the values of ب ج ز ک; Iranica says they have none. Two more settings match a source that counts a shadda letter twice, or ة as tāʾ, 400.
Chronograms: years hidden in a phrase
A chronogram (taʾrīkh) is a phrase whose letters add up to a year. Iranica describes poets matching part of a poem's last line, usually the final half-line, to the year of a death or a reign. In the calculator, Persian ک counts as ك.
| Phrase | Transliteration (meaning) | Total | What it dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| خاک مصلی | khāk-i muṣallā (dust of the Musalla) | 791 | The death of the poet Hafez, inscribed on his tomb in Shiraz (Iranica, Hafez's tomb; total from Wikipedia, Chronogram) |
| فوت اکبر شه | fawt-i Akbar shah (the death of Akbar Shah) | 1014 | The death of the Mughal emperor Akbar, 1014 AH / 1605 CE. Shah is written without its alif to make the sum work (Iranica, Abjad). |
| المختار | al-mukhtār (the chosen one) | 1272 | A name chosen by the scholar Ahmad Raza Khan because its total is his birth year, 1272 AH (Wikipedia, Chronogram) |
All three totals are Hijri years. Our Islamic calendar for 2027 shows how the current Hijri years line up with the Gregorian calendar.
What people use abjad totals for
The main modern use is plain numbering. Arabic outlines and lists run أ، ب، ج (alif, bāʾ, jīm) the way English runs A, B, C (Wikipedia), and Iranica adds the pages of a book's introduction. Before the digits on our Arabic numbers chart spread, letters did all the work of numbers.
People also add up names. Iranica notes that a name's total may carry symbolic meaning, and that letter values are used in magic squares and talismans. Others compare two names before a marriage. The calculator gives totals and stops there: we don't interpret them, and we know of no evidence that a total predicts anything. To find a name and its meaning first, use our generator of real Arabic names with meanings; to write it out, the tool that turns Arabic text into calligraphy images. Courses and books are in our Arabic learning resources.
Frequently asked questions
What is an Abjad calculator?
An abjad calculator adds up the number values of the letters in an Arabic word, using the old system in which each of the 28 letters stands for a number from 1 to 1,000. It is called hisab al-jummal in Arabic. The one on this page shows each letter's value as well as the total, so you can check the arithmetic yourself.
How to calculate Abjad value?
Write the word in Arabic script, give each letter its value from the abjad table, and add them up. Short vowels count nothing, and a letter with a shadda counts once. For example, محمد (Muhammad) is mim 40 + ha 8 + mim 40 + dal 4 = 92. Spell the word the way it is written in Arabic, not the way it sounds in English.
How accurate are Abjad calculators?
The addition is exact, so two calculators only disagree when they use different values or different counting rules. The usual causes are the Mashriqi versus Maghribi order and how a lone hamza is treated. Frank Lewis gives كل شيء (kull shay, everything) as 361 in the eastern order and 1061 in North Africa, and 360 if the final hamza is dropped. Check which rules a total was made with before comparing it.
Is there a free way to calculate the Abjad for marriage?
Yes. The calculator on this page is free and runs in your browser, so the names you type are not sent anywhere. Enter each name separately, spelled as it is written in Arabic, and note both totals. We give the numbers only: we do not interpret them, and we know of no evidence that a total predicts anything about a marriage.
What is the abjad value of Bismillah?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم (bismillah al-rahman al-rahim) totals 786 in the common Mashriqi order, the figure Wikipedia gives. In the Maghribi order it totals 1026, because sin is 300 there instead of 60.