11 October 2000 PRESS RELEASE
Diwan and Sun Microsystems Inc. cooperate to make the Holy Koran available on the Internet
Diwan and Sun Microsystems Inc. cooperate to make the Holy Koran available on the Internet.
Diwan is cooperating with Sun on the next release of Sun's Java technology to make the Holy Koran available in its complete form on the widest variety of computer platforms via the Internet. The results of our work will be demonstrated on the Sun Microsystems stand at GITEX 2000 in Dubai from 28th October to 1st November.
Diwan announced at the 17th Unicode conference the completion of their encoding of the Holy Koran into Unicode together with a typeface capable of rendering all the calligraphy of hand-written Korans. This project for the first time bridges the gap between hand-drawn Korans and computer typography.
Unicode has made it possible for the first time to encode the Holy Koran with all its correct marks and annotations. Diwan has completed a family of intelligent typefaces which are capable of rendering the Holy Koran automatically from the plain text of the encoding. Based on the award-winning Mishafi font, Diwan's typeface fully supports the long held traditions, especially those of Hafs ibn Sulaiman al-Kufi and other well known authorities, of encoding the Koran.
Using the features of the forthcoming Java version 1.4 it has become possible to make the text of the Holy Koran work on nearly all computer platforms regardless of built-in support for Arabic. Diwan has worked with Sun to make sure the text engine built into Java 1.4 supports the features necessary for Diwan's typeface to render the Koran encoding correctly. Diwan will also work with Sun on future enhancements to their Java text support to allow for more advanced typographic features.
Diwan has created an applet that contains our Koranic typeface and components of Diwan's al-Nashir al-Sahafi desktop publishing application. The applet will read the text of the Koran as Unicode from a database server and display it correctly formatted on the client's computer. As the applet is built on Sun's Java technology it will run immediately on any platform that has a Java 1.4 Runtime. The applet and the database are hosted on one of Sun's high-end servers which provides the necessary power to make the text available to millions of subscribers via the Internet. Diwan will be showing this system at the Sun Microsystems stand at GITEX 2000.
"Sun Microsystems is delighted to welcome Diwan Software Limited onto its stand at GITEX, and is proud to learn that Sun's Java technology is being utilized by Diwan to provide access to the Holy Koran on the majority of computer platforms and over the Internet," said Amanda Cummins, Business Development Manager, Sun Microsystems. Diwan Software is a strategic member of the Sun Developer Connection - Sun's online community for developers using the Java and Solaris platforms.
Adil Allawi, technical director of Diwan Software adds: "Diwan has spent more than 3 years completing the Holy Koran and a typeface capable of matching the work of the best calligraphers. With Sun's Java technology this has helped us realize our dream of making the full word of the Koran available immediately to millions of people on all computer systems."
Unicode is a new international standard for text encoding which replaces ASCII and other 8-bit encodings with a new system that allows all the World's languages to be encoded in a character set.
Sun's Java is a programming language and system which allows compiled software to run on any platform that has a Java runtime. Such platforms include Solaris, Linux, Windows 2000, Windows 98 and Mac OS X.
About Diwan:
Diwan Software Limited has pioneered technology for multilingual computing. Throughout its 15 year history Diwan has always supplied the highest quality computer software for multilingual text. Diwan was the main consultant to Apple Computer for the Arabic Macintosh and has gone on to produce a high end Desktop Publishing application that is the industry standard in the Middle East. An innovator in the field mobile computing, Diwan announced the first ever Arabic WAP publishing system as well as one of the first Arabic typefaces designed especially for mobile devices. Diwan has offices in London and Amman and has recently opened an office in Dubai Internet City.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision - The Network Is The Computer[tm] -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to dot-com their businesses. With $15.7 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
Press Contact:
Melissa Campbell
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
E-mail: melissa.campbell@dubai.sun.com
Tel: +9714 336633 ext. 119
Adil Allawi
Technical Director
Diwan Software Ltd
37-39 Peckham Road
London SE5 8UH,UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7 2525 333
Fax: +44 (0)20 7 2525 444
email: info@diwan.com
A simulation of the Openwave browser in Arabic. This shows the browsing of a sample email application and a calendar application on the small screen of a mobile phone.