Haitham Assoli

the project

All projects

Tafrigh

Transcribe Arabic audio and generate SRT and VTT subtitles.

A transcription tool that turns Arabic audio into text and timed subtitle files using Whisper models and wit.ai. Widely used for making Arabic lectures and books searchable.

Tafrigh

the facts

Role
Contributor
Year
2026
Status
Live
Category
AI

Built with

  • Python
  • Whisper
  • wit.ai
  • SRT / VTT

Where to find it

overview

What it is, and why it exists.

Arabic speech is under-served by transcription tooling, and the material that most needs it, lectures, lessons, recorded books, is exactly the material nobody has budget to transcribe by hand.

Tafrigh produces both plain text and timed subtitle files, which is what makes the output useful for search rather than just for reading. It is the same capability that Kashaf Abi Ja'far depends on.

problems

Challenges

Timed output is what makes a transcript searchable

the problem

A wall of transcribed text tells you a phrase was said but not where, which leaves the listener scrubbing through the recording anyway.

what I did

Output includes SRT and VTT with segment timings, so downstream tools can index the text and still link back to the exact moment in the audio.

after

Results

  • Plain text plus timed SRT/VTT output for Arabic audio.

next

Next project

Aoun

A free academic platform for Jordanian university students.