Boustani

Boustani is a Lebanese surname. Variations of the name, due to transliteration, include: Boustani as well as Boustany, Bisteni, Bistany, Bostany, Bustani, Besteni, and Bestene (Arabic: بستاني / ALA-LC: Bustānī). The name, a nisba, derives from the Arabic word for garden (a loanword from Middle Persian “bōyestān”[1]) and is thought to date back to at least the 15th Century.

The family has its roots in a place named El-Bassatin, in the village of Jableh, near Lattakia, Syria. In the beginning of the 16th century, and after the Ottoman conquest of the Middle East, Muqim (Abu Mahfouz) left his home town and went towards Mount-Lebanon, stopping at Dahr Safra, then Bqerqacha, a village at the foot of the Cedars of Lebanon. Muqim had three sons, Mahfouz, Abd el Aziz and Nader. Abd el Aziz resided in Deir el Kamar. Nader and his family settled in the Chouf region, principally Deir el Kamar and Debbiyé.

Muqim and his eldest son Mahfouz went back to the northern regions of the country. His descendants still bear the name Mahfouz.

Following social and political upheavals, the Boustanis settled in every single region of Lebanon – in Giyeh, Marj, Jounieh, Tripoli, in the Koura and the Beqaa – as well as in Syria (Damascus and Aleppo) Turkey and Egypt. Throughout the two last centuries, and especially in the beginning of the 20th, the great migration of the Boustanis towards Europe and the New World began.

During the two last centuries, members of the family emigrated from different Lebanese cities to numerous countries around the world. However, the Boustanis who presently live in Lebanon, as well as those of the Diaspora, constitute one sole family.

The Boustanis were a family of many talents, to which were born eminent archbishops, great statesmen, businessmen, writers and poets in Lebanon and in the Diaspora countries. Among the bishops were: Abdallah (1780–1866), Boutros (1819–1883) and Augustin (1875–1957).