experts say ...

Experts say,
that there are hundereds more alifs in Ottoman and Turkish prints
then in modern Arab and in Indian prints.
Although not outright wrong, I think it is stupid to say.
Why?
Because there is not one alif, but nine:

	Q52 IPak	Q52 IPak	Q52 IPak
There are	leading	middle	trailing	Alifs
hamza	ء     vsign	ء    ء	ء   ء
mater lec.	--	X	X
silent	waṣla X	circle X	circle   X X     X	Alif wiqāya accusative marker

In IPak a v(owel) sign on/below alif includes hamza

In spite of what the experts say,
there are not more alifs signifying or carrying hamza
-- whether leading, in the middle or trailing,
nor more otiose/silent alifs.
Here Turks (last line) have the same silent alif; they shorten it, i.e. the fatḥa is valid, the alif is not.
BTW: In one of the three maṣāḥif of Muṣṭafā Naẓīf the yāʾ is missing -> the alif carries the hamza+kasra (first line on the right side).



Here Turks (first line) actually have an otisose alif LESS (END of my snippet)


What these experts want to say:
There are more Alif Matres lectionis, i.e. alifs standing for /a/.