List of Arabic dictionaries

Following are lists of notable Arabic dictionaries.

Explanatory dictionaries

Title	Author	Date	Vocabulary	Notes
Kitab al-'Ayn [n 1] (Arabic : كتاب العين)	Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (Arabic : الخليل بن أحمد الفراهيدي) (b. 718 - d. 791)	8th century		Kitab al-Ayn was the first dictionary for the Arabic language. [1]
Kitab al-Jim [n 2] (Arabic : كتاب الجيم) a.k.a. Kitab al-Lughat or Kitab al-Huruf	Abu Amr al-Shaybani (Arabic : أبو عمرو الشيباني) (b. ca. 738 - d. 828)	8-9th century		The only copy is in the El Escorial Library. [2]
Al-Jamhara al-Lugha [n 3] (Arabic : جمهرة اللغة) a.k.a. Al-Jamhara fi al-Lugha (The all-embracing in language) [3]	Ibn Duraid [4] (Arabic : ابن دريد) (b. 838 - d. 933)	9-10th century		The dictionary was inspired in part by the earlier dictionary Kitab al-Ayn of al-Farahidi. [5]
Tahdhib al-Lugha [n 4] (Arabic : تهذيب اللغة)	Abu Manshur al-Azhari al-Harawi (Arabic : أبو منصور الأزهري الهروي) (b. 895 - d. 981)	10th century		The dictionary is important as a source of the Lisan al-Arab. [6]
Al-Muhit fi al-Lugha [n 5] (Arabic : المحيط في اللغة)	Al-Sahib ibn Abbad (Arabic : الصاحب بن عبّاد) (b. 938 - d. 995)	10th century
Taj al-Lugha wa Sihah al-Arabiyya [n 6] (Arabic : تاج اللغة وصحاح العربية) shorter title:Taj al-Lugha or al-Sihah	Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari (Arabic : إسماعيل بن حماد الجوهري) (b. ? - d. 1009)	10-11th century	It contains about 40,000 dictionary entries. [7]	The author died at Nishapur while attempting flight. [8]
Mu`jam Maqayis al-Lugha [9] (Arabic : معجم مقاييس اللغة; "Language Standards Compendium)	Ahmad Ibn Zakariyya al-Qazwini Ibn Faris	11th century
Al-Muhkam wa al-Muhit al-A'zam [n 7] (Arabic : المحكم والمحيط الأعظم) shorter title:Al-Muhkam	Ibn Sidah (Arabic : ابن سيده) (b. 1007 - d. 1066)	11th century		The author was a blind man. [10]
Lisan al-Arab [n 8] (Arabic : لسان العرب)	Ibn Manzur (Arabic : ابن منظور) (b. 1233 - d. 1312)	The dictionary was completed in 1290. [11]	It contains about 80,000 dictionary entries. [12]
Al-Misbah al-munir [9] (Arabic : المصباح المنير ; "The Enlightening Lamp")	Ahmed Al Maqri Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Maqri Al Fayoumi	The dictionary dates to 1368
Al-Qamus al-Muhit wa al-Qabus al-Wasit [n 9] [n 10] (Arabic : القاموس المحيط، والقابوس الوسيط; "The Encompassing Ocean/Lexicon") shorter title:Al-Qamus al-Muhit	Al-Firuzabadi (Arabic : الفيروزآبادي) (b. 1329 - d. 1414)	The dictionary was completed in 1410. [13]	It contains about 60,000 dictionary entries. [14]	The dictionary served as the basis of later European dictionaries of Arabic. [15]
Ahkam Bab al-I`rab `n Lughat al-A`rab (Arabic : أحكام باب الإعراب عن لغة الأعراب)[ citation needed ]	Germanus Farhat (1670–1732)	Printed by Rashid Dahdah (1813–1889)		A revision of Fairuzabadi’s Al-Qamus Al-Muheet. Arranged by word ending.
Taj al-'Arus min Jawahir al-Qamus [n 11] (Arabic : تاج العروس) shorter title:Taj al-Arus	Abu al-Fayd Mohammad Murtada al-Zabidi [9] (Arabic : أبو الفيض محمد مرتضى الزبيديb. 1731 - d. 1790)	The dictionary was completed in 1774. [16]	It contains about 120,000 dictionary entries. [16]
Muhit al-Muhit [n 12] (Arabic : محيط المحيط) a.k.a. Qutr al-Muhit (The Diameter of the Ocean) [17]	Butrus al-Bustani (Arabic : بطرس البستاني) (b. 1819 - d. 1883)	The dictionary was completed in 1870. [17]		The author had dedicated the work to the Sultan Abdulaziz. The sultan awarded him with a higher medal and 250 golden liras. [18]
Al-Faraed Al-Hissan Min Qalaed Al-Lisan (Arabic : الفرائد الحسان من قلائد اللسان)	Ibrahim al-Yaziji (Arabic : إبراهيم اليازجي; b. 1847 - d. 1907)	1870
Matn al-Lugha (Corpus of the language) [19]	Ahmad Rida (Arabic : أحمد رضا) (b. 1872 - d. 1953)	1958
Lexicon of the Modern Arabic Language (Arabic : معجم اللغة العربية المعاصرة)	Ahmad Mukhtar Omar	2008

Bilingual dictionaries

Influential Arabic dictionaries in Europe:

• Pedro de Alcalá, Vocabulista, 1505. A Spanish-Arabic glossary in transcription only. ^[20]
• Valentin Schindler, Lexicon Pentaglotton: Hebraicum, Chaldicum, Syriacum, Talmudico-Rabbinicum, et Arabicum, 1612. Arabic lemmas were printed in Hebrew characters. ^[20]
• Franciscus Raphelengius, Lexicon Arabicum, Leiden 1613. The first printed dictionary of the Arabic language in Arabic characters. ^[20]
• Jacobus Golius, Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, Leiden 1653. The dominant Arabic dictionary in Europe for almost two centuries. ^[20]
• Georg Freytag, Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzubadiique et aliorum libris confectum I–IV, Halle 1830–1837 ^[20]
• Edward William Lane, Arabic–English Lexicon , 8 vols, London-Edinburgh 1863–1893. Highly influential, but incomplete (stops at Kaf) ^[20]
• Albert Kazimirski de Biberstein, Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, Tome 1 (1846) & 2 (1850), G.-P. Maisonneuve (Paris).

Influential Arabic dictionaries in modern usage:

• English: Collins Dictionaries, Collins Essential - Arabic Essential Dictionary, Collins, Glasgow 2018. ^[21]
• English: Lahlali, El Mustapha & Tajul Islam, A Dictionary of Arabic Idioms and Expressions: Arabic-English Translation, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2024. ^[22]
• English: Oxford Languages, Oxford Arabic Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014. ^[23]
• French: R. Blachère, C. Pellat, M. Chouémi, and C. Denizeau, Dictionnaire arabe-français-anglais (langues classique et moderne), Paris 1967 ff. ^[20]
• French: D. Reig, As-Sabil, Dictionnaire arabe- français, français-arabe, Larousse, Paris, 1984.
• German (Classical Arabic): M. Ullmann, Wörterbuch der klassischen arabischen Sprache I, kāf, Wiesbaden 1970; II/1-4, lām, Wiesbaden 1984–2009. Missing mīm, nūn, hā’, wāw, and yā’. ^[20]
• German (Modern Standard Arabic): Hans Wehr, Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart. Arabisch-Deutsch, Wiesbaden 1952; 5th ed., 1985. ^[20]
  • English (translation of Hans Wehr): J Milton Cowan: Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic . Arabic-English, Wiesbaden 1971; 4th ed., 1979. ^[20]
• Greek: G. Endress (ed.), A Greek and Arabic Lexicon, Leiden 1992 ff. ^[20]
• Polish: J. Kozłowska and J. Danecki, Słownik arabsko-polski, Warszawa 1996 and J. Łacina, Słownik arabsko-polski, Poznań 1997. ^[20]
• Russian: Х.К. Баранов, Арабско-русский словарь, Moscow 1957; 6th ed., 1985. ^[20]

Online dictionaries

• Alankaa
• Almaany
• معجم الرياض للغة العربية المعاصرة
• معجم الدوحة التاريخي للغة العربية
• المعجم التاريخي للغة العربية

See also

• Dictionary
• List of Dutch dictionaries
• List of French dictionaries
• List of German dictionaries
• Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (Arabic-English/German dictionary)
• List of Arabic encyclopedias

Notes

1. The name means "Book of the Ayn (Letter)".
2. The name means "Book of the Jim (Letter)".
3. The name means "Collection of Language".
4. The name means "Refinement of Language".
5. The name means "Surrounding of The Language".
6. The name means "The crown of Language and the authentic of Arabic".
7. The name means "The arbitrator and the Great Ocean".
8. The name means "The tongue of the Arabs".
9. Al-Qamus al-Muhit means "The surrounding Ocean".
10. The Qamus - which may be derived from Greek okeanos became, and has remained, the commonest Arabic word for dictionary.
11. The name means "The bride's crown from the pearls of the Qamus (Ocean)".
12. The name means "Circumference of the Ocean".

References

1. "Al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad" Encyclopædia Britannica Retrieved 02 February 2015
2. "İslâm Ansiklopedisi Online (in Turkish)" PDF "TDV Encyclopedia of Islam" . Retrieved 31 January 2015
3. Hausmann, F. J. Dictionnaires, P.2441
4. "Ibn Durayd" Encyclopædia Britannica Retrieved 02 February 2015
5. "Ibn Durayd" Encyclopædia Britannica Retrieved 30 May 2015
6. Arabic Lexicography: Its History, and Its Place in the General History of Lexicography, John A. Haywood, p. 53.
7. "İslâm Ansiklopedisi Online (in Turkish)" PDF "TDV Encyclopedia of Islam" . Retrieved 02 February 2015
8. "İslâm Ansiklopedisi Online (in Turkish)" PDF "TDV Encyclopedia of Islam" . Retrieved 02 February 2015
9. al-Musawi, Muhsin J. (2015-04-15). The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction. University of Notre Dame Press. p. 82. ISBN   978-0-268-15801-9.
10. Arabic Lexicography: Its History, and Its Place in the General History of Lexicography, John A. Haywood, p. 65.
11. "İslâm Ansiklopedisi Online (in Turkish)" PDF "TDV Encyclopedia of Islam" . Retrieved 02 February 2015
12. "İslâm Ansiklopedisi Online (in Turkish)" PDF "TDV Encyclopedia of Islam" . Retrieved 02 February 2015
13. "İslâm Ansiklopedisi Online (in Turkish)" PDF "TDV Encyclopedia of Islam" . Retrieved 02 February 2015
14. "İslâm Ansiklopedisi Online (in Turkish)" PDF "TDV Encyclopedia of Islam" . Retrieved 02 February 2015
15. "Al-Fīrūzābādī" Encyclopædia Britannica Retrieved 02 February 2015
16. Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Vol.2, Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey, p.817.
17. al-hakawati Butros Bustani Retrieved 02 February 2015
18. "İslâm Ansiklopedisi Online (in Turkish)" Muhitü'l-Muhit article PDF. TDV Encyclopedia of Islam Archived 2014-11-10 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved 05 June 2015
19. Rida, Ahmad (1958). معجم متن اللغة : موسوعة لغوية حديثة [The language corpus dictionary: a modern linguistic encyclopedia] (in Arabic). Beirut: Dar Maktabat al-Hayat. Archived from the original on 2022-05-28.
20. Edward Lipiński, 2012, Arabic Linguistics: A Historiographic Overview, pages 32-33
21. "Collins Essential - Arabic Essential Dictionary: All the words you need, every day (Second edition)". Collins. Collins. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
22. "A Dictionary of Arabic Idioms and Expressions". Edinburgh University Press. Edinburgh University Press. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
23. "Oxford Arabic Dictionary". Oxford University Press Academic. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 13 February 2024.