Mukhtar al-Sihah
- Author died
- 666 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktabah al-‘Aṣriyyah - al-Dār al-Namūdhajiyyah
Mukhtar al-Sihah (The Selection of al-Sihah) is an Arabic lexicon compiled by the Hanafi scholar Zayn al-Din al-Razi (d. after 660 AH / 1262 CE; other reports state 666 AH). It is a concise abridgment of the classical dictionary al-Sihah (Taj al-Lugha wa-Sihah al-Arabiyya) by Isma'il ibn Hammad al-Jawhari (d. ca. 393 AH), supplemented with additional lexical material from earlier authorities.
Purpose and Composition
Al-Razi completed his manuscript of the work on Thursday evening, the first of Ramadan 660 AH (the eve of Friday). Some later bibliographic records mention 760 AH as the completion date, though scholars noted this to be a scribal error for 660 AH.
In his introduction, al-Razi explained that he selected al-Jawhari's al-Sihah as his base text because he considered it the best arranged, most refined, easiest to navigate, and most widely circulated of the authoritative Arabic lexicons. He aimed to create a handy reference containing the vocabulary essential for jurists, hadith scholars, memorizers, and men of letters, prioritizing words of frequent usage, especially those appearing in the Quran and the Prophetic hadith. To facilitate memorization and maintain brevity, he deliberately omitted obscure, rare, and difficult lexical items ('awis al-lugha wa-gharibuha).
Method and Structure
Al-Razi maintained the original structure of al-Sihah, which followed the rhyme-letter system (nizam al-qafiya) that arranges roots into chapters based on their final radical letter and into sections based on their initial radical letter. In modern times, the lexicon was also rearranged by Mahmud Khatir Bey in conventional alphabetical order by the first letter of the root.
To enhance the original text, al-Razi introduced several methodological refinements:
- Additional sources: He supplemented al-Jawhari's entries with numerous benefits drawn from Tahdhib al-Lugha by Abu Mansur al-Azhari and other trusted lexical authorities, marking every addition of his own with the phrase "I say" (qultu).
- Morphological vocalization: Where al-Jawhari omitted the morphological patterns (awzan) of trilateral verbal nouns (masadir) or their corresponding verbs, al-Razi explicitly stated their vocalization or referenced them to one of twenty standard morphological measures outlined in his introduction. He avoided supplying omissions through personal analogy (qiyas), adding only what was documented in reliable lexical works.
- Textual precision: For ambiguous nouns, he secured the correct reading by supplying well-known parallel examples or by explicitly naming vowel marks, seeking to protect the text against scribal corruption over time.
Reception, Abridgments, and Editions
Mukhtar al-Sihah became the most celebrated and widely utilized abridgment of al-Jawhari's dictionary. It was later abridged by Abd al-Rahman ibn Isa al-Hamadhani (d. 1037 AH) under the title Safw al-Rah min Mukhtar al-Sihah.
The text was published in numerous early printings in Egypt, including editions at the Bulaq Press (1282 and 1302 AH), Matba'at Wadi al-Nil (1289 AH), al-Matba'a al-Sharqiyya (1301 AH), al-Matba'a al-Khayriyya (1304 and 1308 AH), al-Matba'a al-Bahiyya (1305 AH), Matba'at Nizarat al-Ma'arif (1311 AH), and al-Matba'a al-Amira al-Uthmaniyya (1311 AH).
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