# Arabic/Farsi? Word Translation (See Pics)



## junk250

Hello,
Could someone translate this arabic word(s) from and old printing block made about 1915. Thank you !


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## ayed

junk250 said:


> Hello,
> Could someone translate this arabic word(s) from and old printing block made about 1915. Thank you !


 
Weclome to the Arabic forum , junk250..
I am trying to deciphering it right now..
If such a context be provided , better be do decide.


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## junk250

Ayed,
Hello, thank you.

I would like to decipher,the printing block is marked with a maker name "J.U. Hallam" Manchester(England?).

I found another print block from the same maker from WWI era 1915,a British Army stamp/print block.

Not sure if the date makes any difference.


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## junk250

I'm still waiting for translation, An Iraq neighbor of mine looked at it and was a little puzzled. 

He said was a variant of Arabic, and thought it said "Miss" something ?

WW1 Era copper woodblock, circa 1917.


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## psxws

Do not know about the translation, but I'd just like to point out that the first and second image are mirror images of each other... I think it is the wood cut that is backwards. If we flip it we can make the last word جَعَ

First starts with مَ then there's a very weird letter? and what looks like دَ followed by اَ and a ع?

---
Actually I'm pretty sure that the last letter in the first word is a weird one with a sukkun... and not a ع


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## ayed

It is something like"Madam Ja3 "


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## AndyRoo

The two words look to have been written by two different people - the first (Madam?) is very badly written - by someone who doesn't know Arabic. The second (Ja3?) is written better, but not particularly neatly.


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## junk250

Hello all,

A while back I showed to my Arabic neighbor ,and he interpreted it as Miss(or Madam) Jaab ,or something, I cant spell it.

Yes the pics show it as "printed" positive,and the as it is on the block or "negative".

The item dates back to 1915, and J U Hallam was a print block maker in the UK(I believe) back to WWI. I suspect it may be a WWI era print block used in a military situation, circa 1915. 

The only other reference to J U Hallam searching the net I found was an old WWI wooden block stamp of the British Army(a hand carved British Army arrow circa 1915),  I lost the link.

There was a lot going on back then, just trying to find out what it is.

My friend spoke it as  "Miss Jaab" or something similar.

I wonder what it was used for ?

Best Chris


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## psxws

ok, I can see how he's writing : مَادَامْ جَعَ

but as AndyRoo said, the madam part is pretty badly written...


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## Mahaodeh

Are you sure it's Arabic? Maybe it's not.


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## junk250

Mahaodeh said:


> Are you sure it's Arabic? Maybe it's not.



No I'm not sure of anything, just trying to figure out what it says and any other info I can find out about it.


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## AndyRoo

Here is a real long shot:
It might (with a lot of imagination) say مزارع منجم which literally translated means "mine fields" but it is not the correct Arabic term (which is حقل ألغام), as the word they've used for "fields" is specifically for the fields where crops are grown and the word for "mine" is for the mines that you get ore from. Maybe there was a translation mix up somewhere or maybe I'm just totally barking up the wrong tree.

But "mine fields" would fit with the period and you'd probably want a printing block for it. Also, the illiterate writing suggests it might have been copied by shape, perhaps from a basic English-Arabic dictionary.


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## junk250

I'm bumping this old thread because I'm still trying to figure this thing out !


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## AndyRoo

Maybe you could try the Turkish forum?


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## psxws

Extremely speculative, but there was a Bhikaiji Cama, commonly known as Madame Gama, who lived at the same time and was active in the Indian Independence movement. Wikipedia mentions her having visited Egypt at least once, in 1910, where she gave a speech. Gama in Egypt could be written as جَمَ which could conceivably be what the cutter was trying to write. I don't know how satisfying of an explanation I find this to be, but it is a possibility at any rate.


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