al-Gharibayn fi al-Quran wa al-Hadith

al-Gharibayn fi al-Quran wa al-Hadith (The Two Rare Vocabularies in the Quran and Hadith) is a classical dictionary of obscure and difficult vocabulary (gharib) found in the Quran and Prophetic Hadith, authored by the philologist Abu Ubayd al-Harawi (d. 401 AH / 1011 CE) Wafayat al-Ayan+1.

Purpose and Scope

Al-Harawi composed the work to provide a comprehensive and easily accessible reference for students of the Quran and Hadith seeking to understand rare and obscure vocabulary al-Bulgha ila Usul al-Lug…. Prior authors had generally treated the gharib of the Quran and that of Hadith in separate compositions; al-Harawi was the first scholar to combine both domains into a single unified work Buhuth wa Maqalat fi al-L…+1. His stated objective was the linguistic, grammatical, and semantic clarification of difficult terms, rather than the exhaustive transmission of hadith chains of narration (isnads) or narrators' biographies Majallat Lughat al-Arab a…+1.

Structure and Method

Al-Harawi organized the dictionary alphabetically by root letters according to the Arabic alphabet (huruf al-mu'jam), ordering entries by their first, second, and third radical consonants Buhuth wa Maqalat fi al-L…+1. In cases where he anticipated that hadith students might struggle to distinguish an original root consonant from an augmentative letter, he listed the word under its initial surface letter even if it was non-radical Buhuth wa Maqalat fi al-L….

To keep the work concise, al-Harawi omitted isnads, minimized textual and poetic citations (shawahid), and kept lexical explanations brief Buhuth wa Maqalat fi al-L…. In compiling his material, he drew heavily upon earlier foundational treatises in the genre—including the works of Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam and Ibn Qutaybah—while incorporating numerous additional vocabulary items not recorded in earlier compilations al-Muallim bi-Fawaid Musl…+1.

Reception and Influence

The book circulated widely across the Islamic world and became the standard authority (al-umdah) in the field of gharib al-hadith Buhuth wa Maqalat fi al-L…+1. Later scholars commended its accessibility; Ibn al-Athir noted that al-Harawi’s alphabetical arrangement allowed readers to locate rare words with ease, in contrast to earlier works that lacked systematic ordering or later works like al-Zamakhshari’s al-Fa'iq, where entire hadith narrations were cited under single entries, making specific terms difficult to find al-Muallim bi-Fawaid Musl…+1. Ibn al-Athir designated al-Harawi’s work with the abbreviation letter ha (هـ) in his own dictionary al-Muallim bi-Fawaid Musl….

Supplements, Critiques, and Abridgments

The work inspired several scholarly supplements, abridgments, and critical treatises:

• Supplements: Abu Musa al-Madini (d. 581 AH / 1185 CE) authored a supplement entitled al-Majmu' al-Mughith fi Gharibay al-Quran wa al-Hadith (also referred to as al-Mughith), collecting words that al-Harawi had omitted while maintaining the same alphabetical arrangement and scope al-Majmu al-Mughith fi Gh…+1. Ibn al-Athir (d. 606 AH / 1209 CE) subsequently merged al-Harawi’s dictionary and al-Madini’s supplement into al-Nihayah fi Gharib al-Hadith wa al-Athar, restricting the combined text to hadith vocabulary and expanding it further Fath al-Mughith bi Sharh …+1.
• Critiques: Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Salami al-Baghdadi (d. 550 AH / 1155 CE) compiled a specialized monograph documenting misreadings, scribal errors (tashif), and interpretative mistakes in al-Harawi’s text, titled al-Tanbih 'ala al-Alfaz allati waqa'a fi naqliha wa dabtiha tashif wa khata' fi tafsiriha wa ma'aniha wa tahrif fi Kitab al-Gharibayn Faharis Ulum al-Quran al-…+1.
• Abridgments: Sulaym ibn Ayyub al-Razi (d. 447 AH / 1055 CE) abridged the work under the title Taqrib al-Gharibayn Fath al-Mughith bi Sharh …. Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 CE) also produced a condensed version of its hadith material with minor additions Abjad al-Ulum+1, and an abridgment was made by Abu al-Makarim al-Wazir al-Bulgha ila Usul al-Lug….

Transmission and Printed Editions

The work was transmitted by several of al-Harawi's direct students, including Abu Sahl Muhammad ibn Ali al-Harawi, Abu Uthman Ismail ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sabuni, and Abu Umar Abd al-Wahid ibn Ahmad al-Malihi Isfar al-Fasih+1.

A portion of the text was edited by Mahmud Muhammad al-Tanahi and published in Cairo in 1970 Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari - …. A complete edition edited by Ahmad Farid al-Mazidi was published in Mecca by Maktabat Nizar al-Baz in 1999 Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari - ….