# Zoekprobleem: Titels met/zonder Arabisch bepaald lidwoord "ال" worden niet als variaties behandeld

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-issue-titles-with-without-arabic-definite-article-are-not-treated-as-variations/365610
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** search
**Created:** [10 mei 2025 om 20:14 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-issue-titles-with-without-arabic-definite-article-are-not-treated-as-variations/365610 "2025-05-10T20:14:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![serkhelesheyi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/serkhelesheyi/32/497726_2.png) [@serkhelesheyi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/serkhelesheyi)
#### Post date: [10 mei 2025 om 20:14 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-issue-titles-with-without-arabic-definite-article-are-not-treated-as-variations/365610/1 "2025-05-10T20:14:33Z")

</div>

Hello

I am managing a Discourse forum with content in Persian and Arabic. I’ve encountered a search issue with topic titles containing the Arabic **definite article “ال” (al-)**.

### **Problem**

I have two topics:

- **الحسین بن زید** (with “ال”)
- **حسین بن زید** (without “ال”)

When searching for one title, the other is not included in the results.

### **Desired Behavior**

I expect searching for either “ **حسین بن زید** ” or “ **الحسین بن زید** ” to return _ **both** _ topics. The presence or absence of “ال” should be handled automatically by the search, similar to how variations are often treated in English search. **Users should not need to manually use wildcards (like `?` or `*`)** to find both variations.

### **Current Behavior**

The search is too specific, only matching the exact title entered. This means the search algorithm doesn’t normalize or ignore the “ال” for better discoverability.

### **Question**

Is there a **setting** , **plugin** , or **indexing improvement** in Discourse to enable this automatic normalization for Arabic/Persian titles? How can I make the search treat titles with and without “ال” as variations of the same term without requiring manual wildcard input from users?

Any guidance is appreciated.

Thank you.