List of Arabic dictionaries

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Following are lists of notable Arabic dictionaries.

## Explanatory dictionaries

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Title  | Author  | Date  | Vocabulary  | Notes

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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 الزبيدي b. 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

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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

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* Alankaa
* Almaany
* معجم الرياض للغة العربية المعاصرة

## See also

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* 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

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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

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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. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Vol.2, Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey, p.817.
17. ^ a b al-hakawati Butros Bustani Retrieved 02 February 2015
18. ^ "İslâm Ansiklopedisi Online (in Turkish)" Muhitü'l-Muhit article PDF. TDV Encyclopedia of Islam. 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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.