The Arabic script

In the Fihrist, Ibn al-Nadim surveys the accounts of the beginning of Arabic writing. ¹

He transmits from Hisham ibn al-Kalbi that the first to devise it was a group of the pure Arabs who settled among 'Adnan ibn Udd. Their names were Abu Jad, Hawwaz, Hutti, Kalaman, Sa'fas, and Qarashat, and they were the kings of Midian. He says that they set down writing according to their own names, then found letters that were not among their names, and called them the rawadif (supplements). ¹

In the book Makka by Umar ibn Shabba, the one who wrote the Arabic jazm script was a man from the Banu Yakhlud ibn al-Nadr ibn Kinana. It is also said that writing was brought to Quraysh by Abu Qays ibn Abd Manaf ibn Zuhra, and it is also said by Harb ibn Umayya. ¹

The first of the Arabic scripts was the Meccan, then the Medinan, then the Basran, then the Kufic. He notes in the Meccan and Medinan an inclination of the alifs toward the right hand, and a slight slant in the form. ¹

These are several accounts that the author transmits without preference, and they have no dates. It needs a further source.