Though Arabic has become a world language of critical importance, lexical resources -- especially for proper nouns -- are either scarce or exist only on a small scale. Because of the important role proper nouns play in such natural language applications as named entity extraction (NER) and machine translation, CJKI has been active over the last few years in compiling databases of Arabic proper nouns in order to rectify this situation. Our Database of Arabic Business Names (DABNA)is part of this effort.

The sample below shows approximately forty Egyptian business records, in both Arabic and English.