الشام

العربية · Thesaurus

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الشام

/aʃ.ʃaːm/

Where it comes from

From the root ش ء م (š ʔ m), a variant of ش م ل (š m l); contrasted with اليَمَن (al-yaman) from *yamīn- (“right-hand side; southward”). Cognate with Hebrew שְׂמֹאל (s'mól, “left”), Akkadian 𒆏 (šumēlum, “left side”), Aramaic סְמָלָא / ܣܡܠܐ (semālā, “left side”), Ugaritic 𐎌𐎎𐎀𐎍 (šmảl). The northern sense derives from the left-hand side oriented with the sunrise, also attested in Old South Arabian 𐩦𐩱𐩣 (s²ʾm, “North”).

The “Greater Syria, the Levant” sense is an ellipsis of بِلَاد الشَّام (bilād aš-šām).

proper noun الشَّام · aš-šām · -

Damascus (the capital city of Syria; an ancient settlement, the ancient capital of various polities, most notably the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 744 CE and Aram-Damascus, existing from the 12th to 8th centuries BCE) الشَّام القَدِيمَة
Similar: دِمَشْق

proper noun الشَّام · aš-šām · -

Levant (a cultural region of West Asia consisting of the eastern Mediterranean countries, i.e. Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Cyprus)
Similar: بِلَاد الشَّام

In English

Damascus the capital city of Syria
Levant the countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea
Syria-Palestine land in and around the eastern Mediterranean Sea

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Cite this

MLA

"الشام." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ar/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%85. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

APA

الشام. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ar/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%85

Chicago

"الشام." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ar/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%85.

BibTeX

@misc{micwyn_2026,
  title = {الشام},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ar/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%85},
  urldate = {2026-11-07}
}