Mlterm

Mlterm - The multi-lingual X terminal

mlterm was the first X terminal to support Arabic and bidi in a satisfactory fashion. Most binary distributions have utf-8 and bidi support. If yours doesn't, you can download and compile mlterm like this:

$ ./configure --enable-fribidi
$ make
$ make install

Create a directory named ~/.mlterm in your home-directory with three files: "main", "font" and "key".

main

ENCODING = utf8
fontsize = 20

font

ISO10646_UCS2_1 = 20,-arabeyes-fixed-medium-r-normal--20-200-75-75-c-100-ISO10646-1;

key

EXT_KBD=Control+backslash

Notes

Now once you start mlterm, you should be able to read Arabic under any text-based application that supports UTF-8. Also, note that less may not work unless you set the LESSCHARSET environment to 'UTF-8'.

In order to input in Arabic all you have to do is Ctrl-\ (or whatever else you would like to define in your key file.