# Muharaf: Manuscripts of Handwritten Arabic Dataset for Cursive Text Recognition

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.09630 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09630/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 6 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Jun 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Datasheets for Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.09010/) (2018)
- [TrOCR: Transformer-based Optical Character Recognition with Pre-trained Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.10282/) (2021)
- [Decoupled Attention Network for Text Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.10205/) (2019)
- [MetaHTR: Towards Writer-Adaptive Handwritten Text Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.01876/) (2021)
- [BADAM: A Public Dataset for Baseline Detection in Arabic-script Manuscripts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.04041/) (2019)
- [A Transformer-based Approach for Arabic Offline Handwritten Text Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15045/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [KITAB-Bench: A Comprehensive Multi-Domain Benchmark for Arabic OCR and Document Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14949/) (2025)
- [HATFormer: Historic Handwritten Arabic Text Recognition with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02179/) (2024)
- [Ancient Script Image Recognition and Processing: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.19208/) (2025)
- [A Human-in-the-Loop Label Error Detection Framework Applied to Arabic-Script HTR Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.16713/) (2026)
- [Cross-Lingual Learning within Arabic Script for Low-Resource HTR](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.02089/) (2026)
- [RefLAM: A Reference-Grounded Line Annotation Pipeline for Historical Arabic Manuscripts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.25140/) (2026)
- [Different Strokes for Different Folks: Writer Identification for Historical Arabic Manuscripts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.22515/) (2026)
- [Performance Gap Analysis between Latin and Arabic Scripts HTR](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.18884/) (2026)
- [Beyond Recognition: Compact Multi-Domain Arabic Manuscript HTR with Candidate-Selection Analysis and Evidence-Preserving Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19385/) (2026)
- [Does a Modern-Handwriting Warm-Up Help Historical Arabic OCR? A Reproducible, Compute-Matched Evaluation on Muharaf and KHATT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.22316/) (2026)
- [When Do VLMs Help Arabic Manuscript OCR? A Cross-Dataset Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.22366/) (2026)
- [AraMS-28k: The Largest Publicly Released Line-Level Dataset of Historical Arabic Manuscripts with Margin and Insertion-Anchor Annotations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.26921/) (2026)
- [UniLipi: A Unified Multi-Script OCR for Historical Indic Manuscripts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.28195/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present the Manuscripts of Handwritten Arabic~(Muharaf) dataset, which is a machine learning dataset consisting of more than 1,600 historic handwritten page images transcribed by experts in archival Arabic. Each document image is accompanied by spatial polygonal coordinates of its text lines as well as basic page elements. This dataset was compiled to advance the state of the art in handwritten text recognition (HTR), not only for Arabic manuscripts but also for cursive text in general. The Muharaf dataset includes diverse handwriting styles and a wide range of document types, including personal letters, diaries, notes, poems, church records, and legal correspondences. In this paper, we describe the data acquisition pipeline, notable dataset features, and statistics. We also provide a preliminary baseline result achieved by training convolutional neural networks using this data.