Never mind. After more word combinations when searching the archives, I came across Wolfgang’s answer here: gmane.comp.tex.context/85673, in which he says to use the \defineconversion command. E.g.:

\defineconversion
  [myconversion]
  [۱,۲,۳,۴,۵,۶,۷,۸,۹,۱۰,
   ۱۱,۱۲,۱۳,۱۴,۱۵,۱۶,۱۷,۱۸,۱۹,۲۰,
   ۲۱,۲۲,۲۳,۲۴,۲۵,۲۶,۲۷,۲۸,۲۹,۳۰]

\setuppagenumber[numberconversion=myconversion]

Of course, one can add the same to setups for the other matters as well:

\setuphead[chapter,title,section,subject][conversion=myconversion]
\setuplinenumbering[conversion=myconversion]
\setupnotations[footnote][numberconversion=myconversion]
\setupnotations[linenote][numberconversion=myconversion]
etc.

This actually provides lots of flexibility, as you can fine-tune various footnote streams by assigning different scripts, etc.

Talal


On 3 Aug 2015, at 00:32, talazem@fastmail.fm wrote:

Dear all,

When typesetting in Arabic (or, for that matter, other non-Latin scripts), how does one get numerals to appear ‘natively’ in layout structures such as headers, page numbers, line-numbering, and footnote numbers? In the case of Arabic, this means using the so-called “mashriqi”, or “Arabic-Indic”/“Arabic-Hindi” numerals. Is there some option when defining the font family? (I would have thought that using “\mainlanguage[arabic]” would have done it.) Of course, I am using a font that contains the numbers of that script.

Mind you, if I manually type such numbers into the body of my text, they appear correctly. MWE below.

Best wishes,
Talal

=====
\setuppapersize[A6]
\mainlanguage[arabic]
\definefontfamily[mainface][serif][ALMFixed][features=arabic,range=arabic,]
\setupbodyfont [mainface,10pt]

\starttext \showframe
\righttoleft

%\setupdirections[bidi=global,method=two]

\section{section one}
\startlinenumbering
\input ward
\stoplinenumbering
\footnote{I would like the footnote number — like the page number, section number, and linenumbers — to be in the so-called Arabic-Indic script.}

\section{section two}
مرحباً بالعالم. ١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩٠ مرحباً بالعالم.
\stoptext
=====