\RLmulticolcolumns deactivated if "right to left" language is loaded with \setotherlanguage xelatex

Question

The command \RLmulticolcolumns from multicol package to reverse order of the columns on the page from right to left work fine with pdflatex or xelatex, here a working example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{polyglossia}

\setdefaultlanguage{english}
%\setotherlanguage{arabic}

\begin{document}

\RLmulticolcolumns

\begin{multicols}{2}
\lipsum[2]
\end{multicols}

\end{document}

The order of columns is starting here from right to left.

If we uncomment the line \setotherlanguage{arabic}, order of columns become starting from left to right, same thing if we replace arabic with farsi or any right to left language.

I think that the problem comes from the package polyglossia which change in definition of \RLmulticolcolumns when right to left language is defined as otherlanguage.

How to fix this problem and take advantage of the \RLmulticolcolumns command with right to left language set as other language, thanks.

Answer 1

With the command \RTLmulticolcolumns from bidi package instead of \RLmulticolcolumns from multicol we can obtain what we need: columns starting from right to left

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{multicol}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}

\setdefaultlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{arabic}

\setmainfont{Times New Roman}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script = Arabic,Scale=1.2]{Amiri} 

\RTLmulticolcolumns % defined from bidi package 

\begin{document}

\begin{multicols}{2}
\lipsum[2]
\end{multicols}

\end{document}

Showing that polyglossia use bidi package if a right to left language is loaded as other language.

Answer 2

It seem like \(LR-RL)multicolcolumns doesn't work

you can try with the command \resetdefaultlanguage

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{multicol}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}

\setdefaultlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{arabic}

\setmainfont{Times New Roman}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script = Arabic,Scale=1.2]{Times New Roman} 

\begin{document}

\begin{multicols}{2}
\lipsum[2]
\end{multicols}

\resetdefaultlanguage{arabic}


\begin{multicols}{2}
اللغة العربية لغة جميله
اللغة العربية لغة جميله
اللغة العربية لغة جميله
اللغة العربية لغة جميله

اللغة العربية لغة جميله
اللغة العربية لغة جميله
اللغة العربية لغة جميله
اللغة العربية لغة جميله

اللغة العربية لغة جميله
اللغة العربية لغة جميله
اللغة العربية لغة جميله
\end{multicols}
\end{document}