The name, a nisba, derives from the Arabic word for "garden" (a loanword from Middle Persian bōyestān).
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.
Nader and his family settled in the Chouf region, principally Deir el Kamar and Debbiyé.
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.
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.