''Lisān al-ʿArab'' (لسان العرب, "Tongue of Arabs") is a

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, p ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

completed by

Ibn Manzur Muhammad ibn Mukarram ibn Alī ibn Ahmad ibn Manzūr al-Ansārī al-Ifrīqī al-Misrī al-Khazrajī () also known as Ibn Manẓūr () (June–July 1233 – December 1311/January 1312) was an Arab lexicographer of the Arabic language and author of ...

in 1290.

History

Ibn Manzur's objective in this project was to reïndex and reproduce the contents of previous works to facilitate readers' use of and access to them. In his introduction to the book, he writes:

"وليس في هذا الكتاب فضيلة أمت بها، ولا وسيلة أتمسك بسببها سوى أني جمعت فيه ما تفرق في تلك الكتب من العلوم (…) وما تصرفت فيه بكلام غير ما فيها من النص، فليتقيد من ينقل عن كتابي هذا أنه ينقل عن هذه الأصول الخمسة" "In this book there is nothing unprecedented, nor is there a particular methodology I hold other than that I gathered what had been dispersed in those academic books... I did not include any other text, so let anyone who cites my book understand that he is citing these five original sources.

Occupying 20 printed book volumes (in the most frequently cited edition), it is the best known dictionary of the Arabic language, as well as one of the most comprehensive. Ibn Manzur compiled it from other sources to a large degree. The most important sources for it were the of Azharī, '' Al-Muḥkam'' of

Ibn Sidah Abū’l-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn Ismāʻīl (), known as Ibn Sīdah (), or Ibn Sīdah'l-Mursī (), (c.1007-1066), was a linguist, philologist and lexicographer of Classical Arabic from Andalusia. He compiled the encyclopedia ' ()(Book of Customs) and ...

, ''Al-Nihāya'' of Ibn Athīr and

Jauhari Abu Nasr Isma'il ibn Hammad al-Jawhari () also spelled al-Jauhari (died 1002 or 1008) was a medieval Turkic lexicographer and the author of a notable Arabic dictionary ''al-Ṣiḥāḥ fī al-lughah'' (). Life He was born in the city of Farab (Ot ...

's ''Ṣiḥāḥ'', as well as the ''ḥawāshī'' (glosses) of the latter (''Kitāb at-Tanbīh wa-l-Īḍāḥ'') by Ibn Barrī. It follows the ''Ṣiḥāḥ'' in the arrangement of the roots: The headwords are not arranged by the alphabetical order of the radicals as usually done today in the study of

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant and ...

, but according to the last radical - which makes finding rhyming endings significantly easier. Furthermore, the ''Lisān al-Arab'' notes its direct sources, but not or seldom their sources, making it hard to trace the linguistic history of certain words. Murtaḍá al-Zabīdī corrected this in his '' Tāj al-ʿArūs'', that itself goes back to the ''Lisān''. The ''Lisān'', according to Ignatius d'Ohsson, was already printed in the 18th century in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_in ...

, thus fairly early for the Islamic world.

Published editions of the Lisān al-'Arab

* ''Bullag Misr al-Matb'ah al-Kubra al-'Amiriyah''

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

; 1883, vol.,1 * ''Al-Maṭbaʿa al-Kubra al-Amirīya'',

Bulaq Boulaq ( ar, بولاق, Būlāq from "guard, customs post"), is a district of Cairo, in Egypt. It neighbours Downtown Cairo, Azbakeya, and the River Nile. History The westward shift of the Nile, especially between 1050 and 1350, made land av ...

; 1883 - 1890, vols.,20 * ''Dar Sadir'',

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...

; 1955 - 1956, vols.,15. * ''Ādāb al-Ḥawza'',

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkme ...

; 1984, vols.,18

References

{{reflist Arabic dictionaries 13th-century books Amiri Press publications 1290 books 13th-century encyclopedias Arabic non-fiction books