al-Takmila wa al-Dhayl wa al-Sila li al-Saghani

al-Takmila wa al-Dhayl wa al-Sila (The Supplement, Continuation, and Appendix) is a comprehensive Arabic lexicon authored by al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Saghani (d. 650 AH / 1252 CE) as a corrective supplement to Abu Nasr Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari's foundational dictionary Taj al-Lugha wa Sihah al-Arabiyya al-Takmila wa al-Dhayl wa…+1.

Purpose and Scope

Al-Saghani compiled the lexicon to supply the lexical items, rare words, and meanings that al-Jawhari omitted from al-Sihah, as well as to rectify inaccuracies and distortions in earlier lexical transmissions al-Takmila wa al-Dhayl wa…+1. In his introduction, al-Saghani clarified that while he gathered what al-Jawhari overlooked, he did not claim to have exhausted all unrecorded vocabulary of the language al-Takmila wa al-Dhayl wa…. Classical bibliographers, including Hajji Khalifa, noted that al-Takmila substantially exceeded the original al-Sihah in bulk and content Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1. The composition of the book was completed on 10 Safar 635 AH / 1237 CE al-Jasus ala al-Qamus.

Method and Sources

In the concluding remarks of the work, al-Saghani recorded that he drew upon more than one thousand sources al-Jasus ala al-Qamus. These included specialized works on gharib al-hadith (unusual hadith vocabulary) by scholars such as Abu Ubaydah, Ibn Qutaybah, Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi, Ibrahim al-Harbi, al-Zamakhshari (al-Faiq), al-Baqarji (al-Mulakhkhas), Abu Sad al-Samani, and al-Nisaburi (Jumal al-Gharayib), along with grammatical treatises, morphological texts (kutub al-abniya), and classical poetic collections (dawawin) and rajaz verses al-Jasus ala al-Qamus.

The work follows the rhyme-order arrangement of al-Sihah, organizing root entries into chapters (abwab) determined by the final radical and sub-sections (fusal) determined by the initial radical al-Takmila wa al-Dhayl wa…+1. Throughout the entries, al-Saghani paid particular attention to morphological precision and the demarcation between triliteral, quadriliteral, and quinqueliteral root structures Tadakhul al-Usul al-Lugha….

Related Works and Influence

Following the completion of al-Takmila, al-Saghani added further marginal annotations documenting additional omitted terms Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1. He subsequently integrated the text of al-Jawhari's al-Sihah, al-Takmila, and these supplementary notes into a unified multi-volume lexicon titled Majma al-Bahrayn Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1.

al-Takmila served as a critical source for later lexicographers; al-Firuzabadi relied extensively on it while compiling al-Qamus al-Muhit, and Murtada al-Zabidi later titled his own supplement to al-Qamus after al-Saghani's work al-Jasus ala al-Qamus+1.

Publication

The work was edited from multiple manuscript copies and published in Cairo by the Academy of the Arabic Language and Dar al-Kutub between 1970 and 1979 in six volumes, edited by a team of scholars including Abd al-Alim al-Tahawi, Ibrahim al-Ibyari, Muhammad Abu al-Fadl Ibrahim, Muhammad Mahdi Allam, and others Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1.