Lane's Arabic - English Lexicon -- online & pdf download

Salam,

While checking some online resources, I came to see that Lane's Arabic - English Lexicon is available online and can be downloaded as pdf (image) files.  Anyone who dealt with scholarly translation of Arabic into English knows this master work as the ultimate Arabic-English dictionary.   It is so meticulous and comprehensive; it is to Arabic-English, as the (unabridged) Oxford English Dictionary is to English.

Edward William Lane (1801-1876) was an English man who studied Arabic and Islam and lived long time in Egypt.  He spent almost the last 30 years of his life working on his massive dictionary.  It is mainly based on the largest Arabic dictionaries, Lis an al-`Arab and Taj al-`Arus.  I find it amazing that he worked this in the 19th century when such huge Arabic dictionaries were still in hand-written manuscripts.  To have an idea how massive undertaking this was; Lisan al-`Arab is about 15 printed volumes while Taj al-`Arus is 20.  Lane's Lexicon was published gradually in 1863 through 1893 in 8 large volumes.  It is still available in print (copy of the original typeset), and in our times was made also available on CD-ROM.  It is great that it is now made available also online and can be downloaded as pdf (image) files.

Links;

• E.W. Lane: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_William_Lane
• Lane's Arabic - English Lexicon book: http://www.astrolabe.com/product/1398/Arabic-English_Lexicon.html ($437)
• Lane's Arabic - English Lexicon CD-ROM: http://www.fonsvitae.com/laneslexicon.html ($150)
• Lane's Arabic - English Lexicon online: http://www.studyquran.co.uk/LLhome.htm

The organization that has it online, studyquran.co.uk (and studyquran.org) seems to be a deviated group.  Anyway, but still it is good that they somehow made the book available online.  I didn't see it on any known Islamic website, not surprising since they generally tend to be unaware of academic-scholarly resources.

Attached are 3 pages in which the Arabic root SHIN-RA-`AYN is explained.  It is an example of the richness of the Arabic language and the excellence of Lane's work.  We all know the word Shari`ah, but I think learning the root expands your understanding of it.  For instance, Shari`ah, a manifest water source, a manifest religious way; Shari`, a street; Mashru`, a project--all are from the same root.  By orientation and convection, I think Arabic is the key to understanding The Qur'an.  "We have sent it down with a clearing Arabic tongue".  I like so much what is reported from Imam al-Shafi`i commenting on the spreading differences in religion in his time, "Nothing destroyed most people but the non-Arabism of their tongues."

I suggest download it (8 pdf files) and use as a resource for understanding key Arabic words.  http://www.studyquran.co.uk/LLhome.htm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_William_Lane

Edward William Lane

Edward William Lane (September 17, 1801, Hereford, England— August 10, 1876, Worthing, Sussex) was a noted scholar of the Arabic language and Arabic literature.

He was the son of an English clergyman, a prebendary , of Hereford, England. He was born in Hereford and sent to university at Cambridge, with the plan that he should enter his father's profession. However, he abandoned the university and moved to London, where he trained to become an engraver.

He was diagnosed with a mild case of tuberculosis , then known as consumption, and advised to remove to a warm dry climate. He sailed to Egypt in 1825.

While in Egypt, he devoted himself to the study of Arabic, Arabic literature, and Islam, observed Egyptian manners and customs, and adopted the dress and habits of an Egyptian man of learning.

He returned to England in 1828, with the draft of a travel book embellished with his own drawings. After many rejections, he finally found a publisher -- however, rather than putting the book through the press in its original form, he insisted on revisiting Egypt in 1833 to check or expand his earlier observations.

The resulting book, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, was published in 1836 and became a surprise best-seller.

From 1838 through 1840, he issued the several volumes of his translation of The Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights). This too was a great popular success.

He was married in 1840, to a woman of Greek descent.

After publishing a book of translations of excerpts from the Qur'an, he decided to assemble a dictionary and thesaurus of Arabic. He returned to Egypt in 1842 to work on his book. He stayed in Egypt until 1849, when he made his final return to England. Until his death in 1876, he worked unceasingly on his gigantic dictionary -- which was, unfortunately, unfinished at the time of his death. It was completed by his nephew, S. L. Poole and published in 1893 as the Arabic English Lexicon.

-- Akram Y. Safadi, PhD