Page "Abjad" Paragraph 5

All known abjads belong to the Semitic family of scripts.

These scripts are thought to derive from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet ( dated to about 1500 BC ), which is thought to derive from Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The abjad was significantly simpler than the earlier hieroglyphs.

The number of distinct glyphs was reduced tremendously at the cost of increased ambiguity.