Why do we still write the word" ʿamr " with wāw at the end?
عَمْرو
Arabic scholars stated that the reason the wāw was added is to differentiate between the two words ʿamr and Omar.
See Adab Al-Katib by Ibn Qutaybah; Al-Jumal by Az-Zajjaji; Adab Al-Kuttab by As-Suli
However, Ibn Durustawayh was skeptical about this reasoning. He said that if we were to add the wāw to differentiate between similar words in orthography, the wāw will be present in many words.
I find it interesting that some poets used the waw in ʿamr in Arabic satirical poetry. For example,
أبو نواس
was satirising a man claiming to be from the tribe of Sulaym :
إنما أنت من سليم كواوٍ
أُلحِقَتْ في الهجاء ظلمًا بعمرو
Many researchers didn't agree with the theory of the Arabic scholars and pointed out that the waw in ‘Amr we still see today came from Nabataean Arabic...see for example Rasm al-Mushaf by Dr. Ghanim Al-Hamad.
We even have Arabic inscriptions from the early Islamic period that contain names with waw at the end.
In PERF 558 (dates back to 22 AH), we have
ابن حديدو
We see this phenomenon in early inscriptions in other names as well such as:
عديو
كعبو
قيسو
etc
Should we still write 'amr with waw at the end?
I personally think that the waw in 'amr should be eliminated =
عَمر
A simple fathah above the 'ayn should be enough.
There is no need for the waw...
We have some early Arabic scholars that suggested the elimination of the waw.
For example see Al-Mubarrad:
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