How to enter footnotes in arabic text under polyglossia

Question

Consider the following LaTeX file:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

% extra packages
\usepackage[margin=0.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage{polyglossia}

% dimensions
\newlength{\defparindent}
\setlength{\defparindent}{\parindent}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

% font
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic, Scale=1.5]{Scheherazade}
\newfontfamily\englishfont{Linux Libertine Display O}

\pagestyle{empty}

\setmainlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{arabic}

\begin{document}

\begin{Arabic}
عائِلَةُ مازِن نَجّار‭
\end{Arabic}

\end{document}

How do I create footnotes in the Arabic text like \footnote{blah}?

I can do it by replacing:

\begin{Arabic}
عائِلَةُ مازِن نَجّار‭
\end{Arabic}

with:

\textarabic{نَجّار}\footnote{footnote 1} \textarabic{مازِن}\footnote{footnote 2} \textarabic{عائِلَةُ}

but that seems cumbersome when there is a lot of Arabic text. Just trying to find something simpler.

Answer 1

Have a look in the bidi manual under section 1.9. There are a variety of useful footnote and footnote rule macros you can use. In your case, what about using \LTRfootnote? e.g.,

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

% extra packages
\usepackage[margin=0.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage{polyglossia}

% dimensions
\newlength{\defparindent}
\setlength{\defparindent}{\parindent}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

% font
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic, Scale=1.5]{FreeSerif}
\newfontfamily\englishfont{Linux Libertine Display O}

\pagestyle{empty}

\setmainlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{arabic}

\begin{document}

\null\vfill
English text.

\begin{Arabic}
  عائِلَةُ\LTRfootnote{footnote 1} مازِن\LTRfootnote{footnote 2} نَجّار
\end{Arabic}

\end{document}