Rub el Hizb
Arabic start of Rub al-Hizb (U+06DE), symbol consisting of an octagram and frequently a circle in the center, sometimes also of eight-petaled floral form; indicates boundaries of parts of sections in Quranic texts
The Rub el Hizb (Arabic: رُبُع الْحِزْب or رُبْع الْحِزْب rubʿ al-ḥizb 'quarter of the party') is an Islamic symbol in the shape of an octagram, represented as two overlapping squares ۞. While its main utility today is to mark a division inside some copies of the Quran to facilitate recitation, it has originally featured on a number of emblems and flags in the past and continues to do so today.
In Arabic, rubʿ means 'one-fourth' or 'quarter', while ḥizb (plural aḥzāb) translates to 'a group'. The Quran is divided into 60 aḥzāb (groups of roughly equal length in turn grouped into 30 ajzāʾ), with instances of Rub el Hizb further dividing each ḥizb into four, for a total of 240 divisions.
History
The symbol was used as a cultural symbol in the time of Al-Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula, appearing on the coins. In addition, the use of it in so many areas led to its name being changed to "the star of Abd al-Rahman I". From Al-Andalus it was exported to the rest of the Arab world. It has also been used extensively in Turkic Islamic culture and history.
Variants
Contemporary use
Architecture
The symbol has been used as a basis for plans of buildings, as in the case of the Petronas Towers.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Rub el Hizb” is arabic start of Rub al-Hizb (U+06DE), symbol consisting of an octagram and frequently a circle in the center, sometimes also of eight-petaled floral form; indicates boundaries of parts of sections in Quranic texts. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Hizb, Arabic and start, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “arabic start of Rub al-Hizb (U+06DE), symbol consisting of an octagram and frequently a circle in the center, sometimes also of eight-petaled floral form; indicates boundaries of parts of sections in Quranic texts” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q93863. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rub el Hizb” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.