title: How to Convert Arabic Characters to Unicode Using PHP
body: <p>I want to to know how can I convert a word into unicode exactly like:
  <a href="http://www.arabunic.free.fr/" rel="nofollow">http://www.arabunic.free.fr/</a></p>
  
  <p>can anyone know how to do that using PHP considering that Arabic text may contains ligatures?</p>
  
  <p>thanks</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit</strong></p>
  
  <p>I'm not sure what is that "unicode" but I need to have the Arabic Character in it's equivalent machine number considering that arabic characters have different  contextual forms depending on their position - see here: </p>
  
  <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet#Table_of_basic_letters" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet#Table_of_basic_letters</a></p>
  
  <p>the same character in different position:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>ب‎ | ـب‎ |    ـبـ‎ | بـ‎</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I think it must be a way to convert each Arabic character into it's equivalent number, but how?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit</strong></p>
  
  <p>I still believe there's a way to convert each character to it's form depending on positions</p>
  
  <p>any idea is appreciated.. </p>