and I wonder if I can have a look of your modified package pf ArabTeX. I am Ahmad Zareef, an Electronics and communications engineer graduated 2005 from cairo University. my graduation project was also based on ArabTeX and it aimed to expand it so that it be able to typeset traditional Arabic. we (my team and I) hope to start an EgTUG Egyptian TUG and we are working on our modified package now and I think it will be too useful to have a look on your package. By the way, we also are preparing a new font now but this as you mentioned consumes time and work.