# Is this Headstone in Georgian? or Arabic?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-headstone-in-georgian-or-arabic/532256>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 12, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-headstone-in-georgian-or-arabic/532256 "2010-03-12T16:59:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-headstone-in-georgian-or-arabic/532256/21 "2010-03-13T15:12:18Z")

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I have lived both in Georgia and an Arabic speaking country… it is not Georgian no matter how you look at it. I think **Johanna** is right:

Najm Bukhayr

From Zahle, Syria (using the old word for Syria)

Syria (using the modern word for Syria)  
(Zahle, now in Lebanon is a small, beautiful mountain town… I was there in 2000 or so)

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**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-headstone-in-georgian-or-arabic/532256/22 "2010-03-13T15:38:35Z")

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The guys at the office said it meant something like “Greater Syria.”

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-headstone-in-georgian-or-arabic/532256/23 "2010-03-13T17:55:01Z")

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> [@Tom\_Scud](#):
>
> Also, the Arabic last name seems to be Bukheer or thereabouts; guess Boger was as close as the guy at Ellis Island could get (or something like that).

Does the translation actually read [one of the **men**]? The reason I ask is there are quite a few Bogers “residing” in Rowan County predating this person, so–if it didn’t literally say “men”–it’s possible that it was a woman who married one of the local Boger man, and that they picked a phonetically close Arabic name for the Arabic script. Just a thought.

I’ll just wait for the experts to lock and load.

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2010, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-headstone-in-georgian-or-arabic/532256/24 "2010-03-14T02:47:43Z")

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No, at first I thought the word “_rajul_” (man) might be there, but only because it uses the same letter forms as Zaḥle (which is clearly the correct reading). Where the dots are placed to distinguish different letters makes all the difference.

The guys at the office were correct: al-Shām means exactly that… ‘greater Syria’… a name dating from before the modern-day boundaries were drawn in the 1920s. al-Shām used to include Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan (and a little piece of Turkey) all together.

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**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-headstone-in-georgian-or-arabic/532256/25 "2010-03-14T03:10:26Z")

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Today, ash-Shām is colloquially used for Damascus (Dimashq ash-Shām). Zahle is west of there just a bit north of the main Damascus-Beirut highway.

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