High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Nabataean alphabet is a consonantal alphabet (abjad) that was used by the Nabataeans in the 2nd century BC. Important inscriptions are found in Petra. The alphabet is descended from the Aramaic alphabet via the Syriac alphabet. A cursive form of it in turn developed into the Arabic alphabet from the 4th century, which is why its letterforms are intermediate between the more northerly Semitic scripts (such as the Hebrew) and Arabic.