Jamharat al-Lugha
- Author died
- 321 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-ʻIlm lil-Malāyīn
Jamharat al-Lugha (The Collection of the Language) is an early Arabic lexicon compiled by the Basran philologist and poet Ibn Durayd (223–321 AH / 838–933 CE) . It represents the second major extant Arabic dictionary after al-Khalil ibn Ahmad's Kitab al-Ayn, modifying al-Khalil's phonetic ordering by adopting a standard alphabetical framework .
Composition and Transmission
Ibn Durayd composed the dictionary during his residence in Fars for his patron, Abu al-Abbas Ismail ibn Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Mikyal (and his family, the Banu Mikyal), who had appointed him to manage the provincial chancery (diwan) . The work was dictated entirely from memory, first in Fars, then in Basra, and finally in Baghdad . Because of these distinct oral recensions, manuscript copies varied significantly in additions and omissions . According to one report, he dictated it in 297 AH without consulting written sources except for the sections on the hamzah and weak-letter roots (al-lafif) . Later scholars considered the final Baghdad transmission—specifically the recension transcribed and collated by Ubayd ibn Ahmad ibn Hujaj—to be the most authoritative text .
Ibn Durayd stated that he titled the work al-Jamhara because he restricted its scope to the mainstream body of Arabic speech (jumhur kalam al-Arab), deliberately omitting excessively rare, uncouth, or objectionable vocabulary (al-wahshi wa-al-mustankar) .
Structure and Method
Jamharat al-Lugha retains the structural division of Kitab al-Ayn, classifying vocabulary quantitatively according to root length into four main sections:
- Biliteral geminate roots (al-thuna'i al-sahih al-mudgham) .
- Sound triliteral roots (al-thulathi al-sahih) .
- Quadriliteral roots (al-ruba'i) .
- Quinquiliteral roots (al-khumasi) .
Each principal division is accompanied by supplementary chapters (mulhaqat) . To the biliteral section, Ibn Durayd appended reduplicated quadriliterals and weak biliterals . To the triliteral section, he attached roots containing identical consonants, hollow roots, roots expanded by weak letters, and rarities involving the hamzah . The quadriliteral and quinquiliteral sections are appended with entries categorized by morphological patterns (awzan), and the book concludes with extensive miscellaneous chapters devoted to rare expressions and specialized linguistic forms (nawadir) .
Ibn Durayd diverged from al-Khalil's phonetic arrangement by ordering the chapters according to the standard abjad alphabetical sequence (alif, ba, ta, tha...) to make the work more intuitive for both specialists and general readers . However, within each section, he maintained the anagrammatical permutation system (nizam al-taqalib), grouping all possible permutations of a root under its earliest alphabetical letter .
Reception and Critique
The dictionary was initially welcomed for simplifying lexical searches compared to the phonetic system of Kitab al-Ayn . Al-Mas'udi praised Ibn Durayd for assuming al-Khalil's place in lexicography and introducing material not preserved by earlier scholars .
Nevertheless, the work faced substantial criticism. The grammarian Niftawayh ridiculed Ibn Durayd in verse, asserting that al-Jamhara was merely Kitab al-Ayn rearranged in different guise . In the introduction to Tahdhib al-Lugha, Abu Mansur al-Azhari noted that he examined al-Jamhara and found distorted forms and unfamiliar roots whose phonetic origins he could not recognize, withholding judgment until confirmed by other authorities . Later scholars like al-Suyuti defended Ibn Durayd, stating that his careful transmission is evident throughout the book and that Niftawayh's attacks were motivated by personal enmity . The complex combination of anagrammatical permutations and numerous unsystematic supplementary sections prevented subsequent lexicographers from adopting the method of al-Jamhara .
Related Works and Print History
Several scholars composed supplements, abridgments, and commentaries on Jamharat al-Lugha:
- Fa'it al-Jamhara (Omissions of al-Jamhara) by Abu Umar al-Zahid (d. 345 AH) .
- Jawharat al-Jamhara, an abridgment by al-Sahib ibn Abbad (d. 385 AH) .
- Commentaries on its poetic citations (Sharh Shawahid al-Jamhara) by Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi (d. 368 AH) and Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri .
- Abridgments by Ibn al-Tiyyani and Sharaf al-Din Muhammad ibn Nasr ibn Unayn (d. 630 AH) .
- A poetic versification (Nazm al-Jamhara) by Yahya ibn Mu'ti al-Zawawi (d. 628 AH) .
The dictionary was first published in Hyderabad, Deccan, in three volumes between 1344 and 1351 AH (1925–1932 CE), edited by Muhammad al-Surati and Fritz Krenkow, who compiled a fourth volume of analytical indexes . A modern critical edition was edited by Ramzi Munir Ba'albaki and published in Beirut in 1987 .
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