[XeTeX] Problems beginning typesetting arabic text

[Tobias Schoel]

Hello to all,

finally I have some Arabic text to typeset. Usually I skip the 
discussion on this list, if non-latin scripts are involved, but now I 
need your help.

The following minimal example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Script=Arabic]{Amiri}
\setromanfont{TeX Gyre Pagella}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic]{Amiri}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{arabic}
\setotherlanguage{english}

\begin{document}
\begin{Arabic}التصرف عند حدوث حريق و اخلاء المدرسة\end{Arabic}

\begin{english}Hello, World!\end{english}

\end{document}

Why do I have to define \arabicfont by myself? Intuitively, this should 
be done by fontspec if it detects, that the main font Amiri includes the 
Arabic script. Which it does.

If I comment it out, polyglossia complains, that the roman main font 
(Amiri) does not support Arabic. Which it does.

This seems to be a little weird.

Finally, a little question concerning Arabic typesetting in General:

The above line in Arabic shall be a headline for instructions, so it 
should be heavily emphasised. In Latin script, I would typeset it larger 
and with a bold face. In Arabic, this seems to be wrong as the usual 
Arabic fonts don't include bold faces. So how is heavy and attention 
drawing emphasis done in Arabic script?

Thanks

Toscho
-- 
Tobias Schoel
Europaschule Kairo
www.europaschulekairo.com