# Anyone read Arabic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 23, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878 "2003-11-23T19:57:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878/1 "2003-11-23T19:57:15Z")
A fellow explorer is in Iraq, and has been sending back some photos from the palaces and other interesting places he has been. He was recently in the Victory over America palace, which was Uday’s. Three shots have text in arabic, could one of you fine dopers translate? [http://www.uer.ca/locations/viewgal.asp?picid=16800](http://www.uer.ca/locations/viewgal.asp?picid=16800) [http://www.uer.ca/locations/viewgal.asp?picid=16801](http://www.uer.ca/locations/viewgal.asp?picid=16801) [http://www.uer.ca/locations/viewgal.asp?picid=16805](http://www.uer.ca/locations/viewgal.asp?picid=16805) ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878/2 "2003-11-24T06:32:17Z")
Anybody? Should I repost in GQ where all the smart people hang out? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878/3 "2003-11-24T08:10:15Z")
Actually, yes, I think GQ seems to be the right forum for this. Translating in Arabic is hardly mundane for the majority of members here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Soup\_du\_jour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Soup\_du\_jour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_du_jour)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878/4 "2003-11-24T13:23:33Z")
I’m taking my third semester of college Arabic, which doesn’t make me fluent in the least, though I can pick out words here and there. The first two photos’ texts both begin with the same line, reading “bismallah al-rahmnan al-rahiim,” which means “In the name of God, The Merciful, The Compassionate.” Not that this has anything to do with God, mind you. It’s normal in Arab culture to say or write these words before any massive undertaking. Other than that, I can’t tell you a thing, except to say that I see the words “God,” something having to do with “friend,” various words in the past and present tenses, the word “Arabic,” the word “old/large,” and other such non-useful stuff. Sorry I can’t help you any more. ---
**Author:** ![cherry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cherry)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878/5 "2003-12-13T18:41:00Z")
From what I can make out on the tile of picture with 17/12/1998 is bismillah ir rahman ir-rahim - in the name of God, the compassionate the merciful\* Inna fathana la ka fathun mobeenun This is the first ayah (line) in sura Al-fath in the quran _verily we have granted thee a manifest victory_ sada kullah al azeem - God revealed the truth The third line looks like its not quranic, I’ll try to translate some later, its very hard because the writing is small and it’s missing the vowels I’m used to reading. fourth line yow mul fatha 17/12/1998 (on this day of success) more later. ---
**Author:** ![Publius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@Publius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Publius)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878/6 "2003-12-13T19:37:10Z")
I’ll give it a shot, but laa anaa atakallam al-'arabiyyah bi-Talaaqati. Starting with the third line, going about halfway across: _Kham bi-‘aran allah na’'aar [something, kind of hard to read] 'aar 'ammaar [something] naHr ba’r_ Word by word, this would be something like, Kham: decay bi-'aran: with - leprosy? The leprosy part is a total guess. allah: God na’'aar: troublemaker 'aar: servility or disgrace 'ammaar: enduring, tolerant, devout, or rational (I’m unsure about the root here) naHr: slaughter ba’r: feces You can probably string that together as well as I can, but if I had to guess, I’d say something like, “God caused the troublemaker to decay with leprosy, disgracing him before the slaughter of the devout…” I’m filling in several words that I don’t see there (like “before”), but that’s my best approximation of the gist of it. Sorry I can’t do better; I’ll try to give it some more time later. Like **cherry** said, it’s very hard to read without the short vowel tashkil, which is generally how I determine what’s a verb and what’s a noun. There’s a bad habit I should break. ---
**Author:** ![Publius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@Publius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Publius)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878/7 "2003-12-13T19:44:14Z")
I just had a thought: “leprosy” might be “shield.” At any rate, I think it’s some kind of growth or covering on the body. ---
**Author:** ![Publius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@Publius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Publius)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878/8 "2003-12-16T03:19:06Z")
Well, I have some good news, and I have some good news. The bad news is, the translation above makes no sense given the larger context of the plaque, and is in fact totally and embarrassingly wrong. The good news, after playing around with it for a few days and consulting a dictionary or two, I think I have it right. Starting with line three (others did a good job on the first two lines), this should be what it says: > [@](#): > > Accomplished with the help of God the Almighty, this house of victory was rebuilt after it was the subject of the hateful American aggression on the day of victory 17/12/1998. It is the first response from the warriors of construction, from the Department of Engineering, who had eagerly risen to the call of their leaders [this is whited out, but I think we can guess who these leaders were] in re-constructing it bigger than it was and to be a part of [more whitewash] > > …that based on the threshold of good this house, whose name is related to victory and challenge, and to always be a good shelter for a great people and their heroic leader, the knight of the Arab nation and its great hope. This accomplishment was done on the date of 8/8/2000. [it also gives the date in Hijri] > > The Department of Engineering Affairs Rough, but for now it’s the best I can do. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-read-arabic/214878/9 "2003-12-16T23:04:20Z")
Thanks a bunch. I didn’t even have to repost it to GQ.