Rajab Abd al-Jawad Ibrahim
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Rajab Abd al-Jawad Ibrahim is an Egyptian linguist and lexicographer known for his specialized lexical compilations, notably al-Mujam al-Arabi li-Asma al-Malabis (The Arabic Dictionary of Names of Clothing).
Education and Academic Career
Ibrahim graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University in 1983 CE. He went on to earn a master's degree in 1993 CE and completed his doctorate in 1997 CE. His university training focused heavily on the theory and practice of lexicography, emphasizing the expansion of Arabic dictionaries through the systematic extraction and documentation of lexical material from classical and modern texts.
Lexicographical Contribution
Ibrahim applied corpus-based lexicographical methods to specific terminological domains across the history of Arabic. In his historical dictionary of garment terminology, al-Mujam al-Arabi li-Asma al-Malabis, he documented more than 1,500 clothing terms spanning from the pre-Islamic era to modern times across the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, the Levant, Egypt, the Maghreb, and al-Andalus. The compilation required over three years of research and categorized terms into standard Arabic, Arabized loanwords, unassimilated foreign borrowings, and regional dialects. The project received encouragement from Mahmud Fahmi Hijazi, rare sources from Mahmud al-Tanahi, and review of Western Arabic vocabulary from Abd al-Hadi al-Tazi and Mahmud Ali Makki. Ibrahim also authored Mujam al-Mustalahat al-Islamiyyah fi al-Misbah al-Munir (A Dictionary of Islamic Terms in al-Misbah al-Munir), which indexically documents Islamic terms.
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List of Works
al-Mujam al-Arabi li-Asma al-Malabis (The Arabic Dictionary of Names of Clothing) is a specialized historical and lexicographical dictionary of Arabic garment terminology. Subtitled Fi Daw al-Maajim wa-al-Nusus al-Muwaththaqah min al-Jahiliyyah hatta al-Asr al-Hadith (In the Light of Lexicons and Documented Texts from the Pre-Islamic Era to the Modern Age), the work documents the names, forms, origins, and historical development of clothing across the Arab world.