Joining Group - Beth

Beth is a specific value used to describe how certain Arabic script characters connect to neighboring letters in cursive text. It denotes the joining behavior of the letter beh, which typically has a rightward connection but can also form a medial or initial form depending on its position in a word. When a character has the Beth joining group, it indicates that its shape and connection pattern follow that of the standard Arabic letter bāʼ, meaning it can link to the preceding character, and if followed by another joining character, it will take a connected form. This value helps define the precise glyph shaping rules for scripts like Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, ensuring that letters render correctly in a word. In practice, Beth is one of several joining group values that specify how a character’s initial, medial, final, or isolated forms are constructed, based on the behavior of a representative base letter.