The .emarat Arabic script Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) ccTLD for the United Arab Emirates has been entered into the DNS Root Zone and is therefore now resolving.

This is a truly historic moment in the development of the Internet in the United Arab Emirates and the wider Arabic-speaking world as it removes the last hurdle preventing people without English-language skills from enjoying the full benefits that the Internet has to offer.

‘.emarat’ is a transliteration of ??????. (note that Arabic is read from right to left).

The first Arabic script domain name is: ????.??????which is transliterated as arabi.emarat.

The deployment of ??????. (.emarat) to the Root Zone represents the culmination of a process that has been ongoing for over a decade, involving tireless work by hundreds of individuals and organisations around the world to extend the support of Domain Name System from the 37 characters previously allowed (the 26 characters of the English alphabet, the digits 0-9 and the hyphen ‘-’) to the thousands of characters from every language around the world.

The introduction of .emarat highlights AusRegistry International’s commitment to provide full support for the IDNA2008 standard into their Domain Name Registry Software, which has been implemented to enable the .emarat Registry System.

We are honoured to be supporting the launch of ??????. (.emarat), through our partnership with the .ae Domain Administration (aeDA) and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE. In addition to providing the Domain Name Registry Software, AusRegistry International is also providing consultancy assistance for the launch processes involved in bringing this historic new ccTLD into the market.

As part of the launch of ??????. (.emarat), a Sunrise Period will be held, to allow provide trademark holders an opportunity to protect their rights in this new Top Level Domain. Following the Sunrise Period, a Landrush Period will be conducted to allow for the registration of high-demand generic domain names.

In addition to ??????. (.emarat), two other Arabic script IDN ccTLDs have also been added to the Root Zone:

????????. (.alsaudiah) representing Saudi Arabia

???. (.misr) representing Egypt

We would like to extend our congratulations to our friends and colleagues in the United Arab Emirates, as well as in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, for reaching this exciting and important milestone.

A fourth IDN ccTLD, .?? (Cyrillic for ‘rf’) representing the Russian Federation is expected to be added to the Root Zone very shortly.