A few years, I was contacted by Anshuman Pandey to provide input for his proposal to encode the Old Uyghur Script in Unicode. In 2020, his proposal was approved and the world got one step closer to the easy rendering of the Old Uyghur script in a digital setting. The only problem now: Where are the Unicode-compatible Old Uyghur fonts?!*

Enter the very boringly named but nevertheless exciting Islamic Old Uyghur font!

Based on the so-called "Samarqand manuscript" of the ʿAtabatu l-Ḥaqāyiq of Adīb Aḥmad Yüknäkī, held under shelfmark 4012 at the Ayasofya Library in İstanbul, this font is fully compatible with the Old Uyghur Unicode block and displays beautifully in most web-based contexts. Just have a look for yourselves:

𐽰𐽳𐽻𐾅 𐽼𐽳 𐽽𐽳𐽹𐾁𐽰 𐽲𐽰𐽸𐽶𐽹𐽶 𐽰𐽳𐽶𐽲𐽳𐽾 𐽲𐽰𐽾𐽼‌𐾁𐽰𐽾‌𐽶 𐽼𐽶𐽾𐾁𐽰𐽺 𐽶𐽰𐽴𐽶𐾁𐽳𐽼 𐾀𐽳𐽾𐽳𐽾

Feel free to use this font in your own projects, though be advised that it won't display properly in, say, a Microsoft Word file until they include font engine support for Old Uyghur. (You may have some luck in LaTeX, though my results so far have varied.)

You can also install this custom Microsoft keyboard to help type in Old Uyghur. Be forewarned, though: Since Microsoft doesn't yet support this Unicode block, I've had to label it "Mongolian" in the Language Bar!

* Okay, so, that wasn't the only problem. Most font engines don't support rendering the ligatures in the script properly even if there is a good font. But bear with me for rhaetorical purposes...