al-Mukhasas
- Author died
- 458 AH
- Editions
- Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-‘Arabī
al-Mukhasas (Arabic: المخصص, "The Specialized [Lexicon]") is an expansive Arabic thematic dictionary of meanings (mu'jam al-ma'ani) authored by the Andalusian philologist and grammarian Ibn Sidah (d. 458 AH / 1066 CE) .
Background and Purpose
Ibn Sidah explained in his introduction that after compiling his root-based alphabetical dictionary, al-Muhkam wa-l-muhit al-a'zam ("The Precise and Vast Encompassing [Dictionary]"), to help researchers locate specific terms, he sought to complement it with a topically classified work (kitab mubawwab) . He considered a thematic arrangement to be particularly beneficial for eloquent speakers, orators, and poets seeking vocabulary organized by meaning . Ibn Sidah noted that earlier lexical compilations in this genre contained valuable knowledge but remained scattered, unorganized, and largely detached from grammatical analysis and inflection (i'rab) .
Structure and Content
The dictionary is organized by major subject divisions (kutub) and subdivided into detailed chapters (abwab) that encompass the subcategories of each semantic domain . Its topical books include:
- Kitab Khalq al-Insan (The Creation of Man), covering pregnancy, childbirth, afterbirth, breastfeeding, weaning, child-rearing, bodily anatomy from the head to the chin, bodily sounds, ailments, and speech defects and eloquence (al-fasaha) .
- Subsequent books covering clothing (al-libas), food (al-ta'am), human instincts (al-ghara'iz), women (al-nisa'), weapons (al-silah), horses (al-khayl), camels (al-ibl), sheep and livestock (al-ghanam), wild beasts (al-wuhush), time and eras (al-duhur), weather and winds (al-ahwiya wa-l-riyah), water (al-ma'), and date palms (al-nakhil) .
In addition to vocabulary definitions, Ibn Sidah integrated extensive grammatical and morphological discussions throughout the work, including treatments of shortened and extended nominal endings (al-maqsur wa-l-mamdud), masculine and feminine gender (al-tadhkir wa-l-ta'nith), noun and verb morphological patterns, and the alternation of prepositions .
Method and Sources
To assemble the text, Ibn Sidah drew extensively upon earlier Arabic lexical monographs, specialized treatises on rare terminology (gharib al-musannaf), descriptions, and general lexicons . He supported definitions and morphological classifications with extensive textual evidence from classical Arabic poetry and prose .
Publication and Scholarship
al-Mukhasas was first printed in Cairo at the Bulaq Press (al-Matba'a al-Amiriyya) in seventeen volumes (also described as eighteen parts) between 1316 and 1321 AH (1898–1903 CE), based on a manuscript whose editing was supervised by Muhammad Mahmud al-Tarkizi al-Shinqiti and others . The historian and scholar Muhammad al-Talbi later produced an analytical study and comprehensive indices to facilitate navigation across its volumes under the title al-Mukhassas li-Ibn Sidah: Dirasa wa-Dalil ("Ibn Sidah's al-Mukhassas: A Study and Guide") .
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