Translation help, please

September 13, 2021 3:40 PM

A friend is looking for help translating the middle column of this document. Our assumption is that it is in Arabic. Any input is appreciated.
posted by komara to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

I might be wrong, but it could be Pitman Shorthand?
posted by slightlybewildered at 3:50 PM on September 13, 2021

It's Arabic, it's the same kind of content as the English entries (names, biographical info, dates) and the handwriting is pretty clear. The bottom two Arabic entries in the middle column are the same as the top two English ones in the right-hand column about Farida and Fahim (my guess is all of the entries were translated, and the first ones are the faded English entries in the middle column). As far as I can tell an Arabic speaker should be able to translate this without much trouble, but I don't know enough to do it well.
posted by trig at 4:58 PM on September 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

Last two dates are probably 1937 and 1944 but the first three are 19?? to my nonfluent eye. Trig's right, same type of content, looks like different people, and a native speaker won't have problems. I don't personally see any nonstandard letters indicating Persian or old Turkish etc.
posted by cobaltnine at 5:04 PM on September 13, 2021 [1 favorite]