An Arabic- English lexicon A MONUMENTAL WORK OF ARABIC LANGUAGE

Edward Lane

A propos de cet article

LANE, Edward William. An Arabic- English lexicon : derived from the best and the most copious eastern sources . by Edward William Lane. London ; Edinburgh : Williams and Norgate 1863- 1885. 8 volumes in four. Original buckram bindings, rebacked, spine labels preserved. Folio (330 mm) Stamp on title page, from the German University in Prague. This is a truly monumental work, exceedingly rare to OPnd complete, from a great man. Dictionaries are often a pretty mundane aJfair but not this one.

Lane did not use his own knowledge of Arabic to give deOPnitions to the words. Instead, the deOPnitions are taken from older Arabic dictionaries, primarily medieval Arabic dictionaries. Lane translates these deOPnitions into English, and he carefully notes which dictionaries are giving which deOPnitions, resulting in long. With longer explanations, the entries are enjoyable to read for entries and explanations about the several meanings of each word. For over 25 years, Lane devoted himself to the compilation of his Arabic-English Lexicon, which remains an essential reference for students and scholars of pre-modern Arabic literature. Moreover, although this enterprise remains largely unexplored territory to many scholars, Lane s work occupies a unique position, as it both built on, and contributed to, an indigenous Arab intellectual lexicographical tradition.

Edward William Lane wrote a fascinating study of Egyptian society, a book so definitive and widely read that it would never go out of print; his Arabian Nights (also offered in our catalogue) would delight and instruct generations of readers. Lane s name would come to be known throughout the field of MiddleEastern studies, admired by western and Arab scholars alike and his great Arabic English dictionary would become a basic, irreplaceable reference work. I have associated, almost exclusively, with Muslims, of various ranks in society, he wrote. and lived as they lived. That provided the perspective for the close observations of Egyptian society and language that proved essential for his work, but it was more than just a convenient pose. As the Egyptian scholar Leila Ahmed wrote, Lane loved Egypt, loved the Muslim world, and unreservedly loved almost everything about it. From his arrival, his entire life and the work he undertook would be an act of devotion and service to this country and culture. When the publisher of The Arabian Nights went bankrupt before paying him in full,

Lane was nearly bankrupt. At that crucial moment (1841) his old friend the Duke of Northumberland came to his aid. The duke offered to support Lane in the preparation of a de56nitive Arabic English dictionary. For Lane, who had once written how he had been possessed, as a young man, by a zealous attachment to the study of oriental literature, and a particular desire to render myself familiar with the language of the Arabs, this was the consummation of a relationship that had been developing all his life. Financed by the duke, Lane prepared to return to Egypt to gather the classical Arabic lexicographical texts that would form the basis of his dictionary. Nothing existed like the dictionary he planned. The standard works were the 17th-century Arabic Latin dictionaries of Franciscus Raphelengius and Jacob Golius, who had long fallen out of date, limited in sources, in organization and scope, and marred by mistakes. Georg Freytag s Lexicon Arabico Latinum, published during the 1830 s, did little more than replicate the shortcomings of its predecessors. On top of that, all of those dictionaries were composed in Latin, a language that was not only already slipping into decreasing scholarly use but was also unsuitable for treating Arabic. More info on request.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: An Arabic- English lexicon A MONUMENTAL WORK OF ARABIC LANGUAGE
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: Near Fine