Lisan al-Arab
- Author died
- 711 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ṣādir
Lisan al-Arab (The Tongue of the Arabs) is an expansive Arabic lexicon compiled by Ibn Manzur (630–711 AH / 1232–1311 CE), gathering the vocabulary of classical Arabic alongside extensive grammatical, morphological, Quranic, hadith, and poetic attestations .
Composition and Sources
In his introduction, Ibn Manzur explained that he compiled the dictionary to safeguard the Arabic language, observing that earlier lexicographical works suffered from distinct shortcomings: some assembled vast linguistic material but adopted difficult, convoluted arrangements, while others were well organized but comparatively concise and prone to textual errors . He also noted with concern the growing neglect of Arabic in favor of foreign speech in his era .
The work is constructed primarily upon five major classical sources:
- Tahdhib al-Lugha by Abu Mansur al-Azhari (d. 370 AH)
- Al-Muhkam wa-al-Muhit al-A'zam by Ibn Sida (d. 458 AH)
- Taj al-Lugha wa-Sihah al-Arabiyya (al-Sihah) by Isma'il ibn Hammad al-Jawhari (d. c. 400 AH)
- Al-Tanbih wa-al-Idah 'amma waqa'a fi al-Sihah (Ibn Barri's glosses on al-Sihah) by Ibn Barri (d. 582 AH)
- Al-Nihaya fi Gharib al-Hadith wa-al-Athar by Majd al-Din Ibn al-Athir (d. 606 AH)
Other accounts also mention his use of Ibn Durayd's Jamharat al-Lugha . Ibn Manzur stated that his primary task was collecting and ordering the material from these foundational texts without altering their substantive content, while supplementing them with further scholarly citations, notes on transmission, and grammatical remarks .
Structure and Methodology
Ibn Manzur adopted the rhyme-order arrangement (nizam al-qafiya) established by al-Jawhari rather than the phonetic ordering of al-Azhari and Ibn Sida or standard alphabetical order by the first root letter . The dictionary is structured into twenty-eight chapters (abwab), each dedicated to a root's final radical, starting with the chapter on hamza and concluding with alif layyina . Each chapter is subdivided into sections (fusul) corresponding to the root's first radical, while roots within each section are arranged alphabetically by their medial letters .
The lexicon contains approximately 80,000 root entries . It is characterized by encyclopedic depth and extensive digressions, recording derivative forms, dialectal variants, proper names of people, tribes, and geographical locations, alongside detailed explanations of hadith terminology, morphological analysis, and copious poetic quotations (shawahid) and rajaz verses .
Reception, Editions, and Adaptations
Lisan al-Arab became one of the most widely consulted classical Arabic dictionaries . Murtada al-Zabidi (d. 1205 AH) drew heavily upon it when composing his voluminous lexicon Taj al-Arus, noting that Lisan al-Arab provided the core source material across most of his commentary .
The lexicon was first published in Cairo at the Bulaq Press between 1300 and 1308 AH (1882–1890 CE) in twenty volumes . Later printed editions include a standard Beirut edition published in fifteen volumes by Dar Sadir . Yusuf Khayyat and Nadim Mar'ashli rearranged the work in standard alphabetical order by the first letter under the title Lisan al-Arab al-Muhit, incorporating modern terminology approved by Arab scientific academies . It was abridged by Abd Allah ibn Isma'il al-Sawi under the title Tahdhib al-Lisan, and its poetic and lexical contents were indexed in a seven-volume reference work, Faharis Lisan al-Arab, compiled by Khalil Ahmad 'Amayira .
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