Mar7aba! You can probably already text your Levantine friends in Arabizi: marhaba, kifak, 7abibi, a few 3s and 7s sprinkled in. But turning that into ...

Walk into a Levantine home with a new baby, or tell a friend some good news, and you will hear it almost before you finish the sentence: mashallah. It...

Mar7aba! You can order coffee, greet people, and count to ten. But the moment a conversation wanders, say to last weekend, a wedding, or why you are r...

Whether you have just made a Muslim friend, met your partner’s family, or started a job with new colleagues, a good greeting makes a strong first impr...

Ask a Levantine friend how they are, and chances are you will hear the same answer nearly every time: el-7amdulillah. It follows meals, good news, saf...

Mar7aba! You have probably met the word Levantine somewhere, on a restaurant menu, in a history book, or inside a language app, and wondered exactly w...

Mar7aba! In Arabic, “how are you?” is almost never a throwaway. It is the opening move of nearly every conversation, often asked two or three times, a...

Mar7aba! Walk into a Levantine café at eight in the morning and the first thing you will hear, over and over, is a bright sabah el-kheir. It is short,...

Mar7aba! Spend five minutes around Levantine speakers and one word will keep landing in your ear: wallah (والله). It shows up when someone is telling ...

Mar7aba! Here is a word you will hear roughly a hundred times on your first day in the Levant: khalas (خلص). Two little syllables that somehow mean "f...