Dustur al-Ulama = Jami al-Ulum fi Istilahat al-Funun
- Author died
- 1173 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah
Dustur al-Ulama (Arabic: دستور العلماء, "The Constitution of the Scholars"), formally titled Jami al-Ulum fi Istilahat al-Funun (جامع العلوم في اصطلاحات الفنون, "The Compendium of Sciences on the Technical Terms of the Arts"), is an encyclopedic dictionary of technical terminology across the rational and transmitted disciplines by the Indian scholar and judge al-Qadi Abd al-Nabi ibn Abd al-Rasul al-Ahmadnagari (d. after 1173 AH / 1759 CE).
Scope and Contents
The work covers terminology across rational disciplines and transmitted fields, including jurisprudence, legal theory, theology, the linguistic arts, and Quranic sciences. In addition to defining technical terms, al-Ahmadnagari incorporated substantive rules, principles, clarifications of problematic introductory concepts for instructors, and elucidations of obscure questions encountered by students. The entries also include Persian terminology and explanations written in Persian. In breadth and comprehensiveness, scholars have compared it to Kashshaf Istilahat al-Funun by al-Tahanawi.
Structure and Editions
The lexicon is arranged alphabetically in four volumes.
The work was printed in Hyderabad under the auspices of Da'irat al-Ma'arif al-Nizamiyyah in 1329 AH (1911 CE), edited by Qutb al-Din Mahmud ibn Ghiyath al-Din Ali al-Haydarabadi, with its fourth volume designated as a supplement (Damimat Dustur al-Ulama). A later edition was published in Beirut by Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah in 1421 AH (2000 CE), featuring Arabic translations of the original Persian passages prepared by Hasan Hani Fahs.
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