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Abstract
Script is a means of communicating thoughts, ideas, and concepts. Through this medium, ideas are conveyed from one person to another, from one place to another, and from the past to the present and recorded for the future. The Arab Muslim traders and the native Tamil converts to Islam in Tamil Nadu state of India, and Sri Lanka came into closer contact as a result of their commercial activities. They were bound by a common religion, but separated by two different languages. They felt the necessity for a link language. They started to write Tamil in an adapted Arabic script called as Arwi. The Arwi script represents the Tamil language using an Arabic style of scripts. From eighth century to nineteenth century, this language enjoyed its popularity among Tamil speaking Muslims of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Like Arwi script of Tamil language, Malay language also employed Arabic based Jawi scripts for their means of communication and writing. The use of Arabic writings put many of Malay scholarly works more productive and accessible to the public. The primary objective of this study is to share their magnificent literary history and the Islamic legacy of Arwi script of Tamil language and Jawi script of Malay language.