Farhang-e-Asifiya () is an Urdu-to-Urdu dictionary compiled by

Syed Ahmad Dehlvi Syed Ahmad Dehlvi (also written as Sayyid Aḥmad Dihlawī; 8 January 1846 – 11 May 1918) was an Indian people, Indian Muslim scholar, linguist, lexicographer, philologist, educationist and an author of Urdu language. He compiled the ''Farhang ...

. It has more than 60,000 entries in four volumes. It was first published in May, 1908 by Lahore

Matba Rifah-i 'Am Rifah-e-Aam Press (also called Matba Rifah-i 'Am) was a publishing house in Lahore. It was established by Sayyid Mumtaz Ali in 1898. The last recorded book it published was ''Dastoor-ul-Amal Bhatta'' () in 1935. Publications * ''Farhang e Asifi ...

History

It was compiled from 1868 to 1898. This dictionary is believed to be the most comprehensive work of Urdu lexicon.

Lexicography

There were Urdu dictionaries before this, but they described Urdu vocable either in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

or in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

(because of the emergence of

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

). These dictionaries contained mostly common words and idioms and had limited extent. This was the first Urdu-to-Urdu dictionary. During its compilation, Syed Dehlvi’s health worsened and he got into monetary issues. It was only completed with the support of the ruler of Deccan, Mir Mehboob Ali Khan.

References

Dictionaries Urdu-language books 20th-century Indian books Urdu-language non-fiction literature Urdu-language encyclopedias {{dictionary-stub