Cover not available
Part of
Handbook of Terminology: Volume 2
Edited by Abied Alsulaiman and Ahmed Allaithy
[Handbook of Terminology 2] 2019
► pp. 7–30

Chapter 1
The history of Arabic lexicography and terminology

After the death of the Prophet Mohammad in 632 A.D., Moslem scholars were in need of understanding certain verses in the Holy Qur’an and some of the Prophet’s oral tradition and sayings. This need motivated a linguistic movement including grammar and lexicography.

In the eighth century, Arabic linguists used to leave cities such as Basra and Kūfa for the desert to meet the Bedouins and record their “pure” language, which was not influenced by the non-Arabic-speaking, new converts to Islam who had settled in the cities.

Based upon their manual corpus, those linguists produced several monographs or specialized vocabularies on various topics such as: men, horses, camels, houses, weapons, snakes, plants, etc., before they embarked upon compiling a full-fledged dictionary. One can safely say that terminology preceded lexicography in the history of Arabic linguistics.

As Islam expanded from Gaul in Europe to Turkistan in just one century after the Prophet’s death and Arabic became the world’s language, Arabic dictionaries and terminologies, monolingual and bilingual, were compiled in various parts of the world.

Through the ages, Arabic lexicography underwent quantitative and qualitative changes, notably in the following areas:

  1. arrangements of entries: phonetically-based alphabetical arrangement with root permutation, normal alphabetical order with root permutation, rhyme order, thematic arrangement, ordinary alphabetical arrangement of roots, alphabetical arrangement of words, combinations of those arrangements, etc.;

  2. arrangements of sub-entries;

  3. arrangements of the senses of the entry word;

  4. definitions of entries;

  5. the inclusion of encyclopedic information.

Although Arabic speakers have produced about two thousand dictionaries of all sorts and varieties, there is not yet any dictionary that documents the historical changes in the Arabic language. In the twentieth century, there have been a few unsuccessful attempts to compile such a dictionary. However, at present, there are two hopeful projects using computerized text corpora: (1) the Federation of Arab Academies’ Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language in Cairo and (2) the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language in Qatar.

Keywords: Arabic grammar, Arabic lexicography, Arabic terminology, Arabic dictionaries
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Beginnings of grammar
  • 3.Beginnings of lexicography
    • 3.1Al-̱Halīl ’Ibn ’Aḥmad Al-Frāhīdī
    • 3.2Al-Farāhīdī’s dictionary
  • 4.Selection of entries
  • 5.Arrangement of entries
    • 5.1Phonologically-based alphabet with root permutation
    • 5.2Normal alphabetical order with root permutation
    • 5.3Rhyme order
    • 5.4Normal alphabetical arrangement
  • 6.Arrangement of sub-entries
  • 7.The arrangement of senses
  • 8.Types of information provided in Arabic dictionaries
    • 8.1Phonological information
    • 8.2Grammatical information
    • 8.3Encyclopedic information
      • 8.4Illustrative quotations
  • 9.Descriptive or prescriptive dictionaries
  • 10.Western contribution to Arabic lexicography
  • 11.Specialized terminological dictionaries
    • 11.1Special dictionaries
      • 11.1.1Fī ḥudūd Al-’ašyā’ wa Rusūmihā
      • 11.1.2Kitāb Al-ḥurūf
      • 11.1.3Risālat Al-ḥudūd
      • 11.1.4’I̱hwān Al-ṣafā’s monograph
      • 11.1.5Al-mubīn
    • 11.2General terminological dictionaries
      • 11.2.1Mafātīḥ Al-culūm
      • 11.2.2Al-tacrīfāt
      • 11.2.3Al-kulliyāt
      • 11.2.4The Indians’ contributions
  • 12.Arabic dictionaries at present
  • 13.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgment
  • References
Published online: 29 January 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hot.2.02alk
References
Abu Rīda, Mohammad Abd Al-Hadi
1950 Rasā’il Al-Kindī Al-falsafiyya (Al-Kindi’s Philosphical Monographs). Cairo: Dār Al-fikr Al-carabī.Google Scholar
Academy Academy of the Arabic Language
1972 Al-mucğam Al-wasīt. 2nd ed. Cairo: Academy of the Arabic Language.Google Scholar
Aḥmad, Abd Al-Samic
1974 Al-macāğim Al-carabiya. 2nd ed. Cairo: Dār Al-fikr Al-carabī.Google Scholar
Al-cAdnanī, Mohammed
1984 Mucğam Al-’aġlāṭ Al-luġawiya Al-mucāṣira. Beirut: Kitāb Al-hurūf Librairie du Liban.Google Scholar
Al-Aḥmadnakrī, Abd Al-Nabī Ibn Abd Al-Rasūl
1997 Dustūr Al-culamā’. Beirut: Librairie du Liban.Google Scholar
Al-Ahwānī, Ahmed Fu’ād
1998 Ibn Sīnā. Cairo: Dār Al-macārif.Google Scholar
Al-Āmidī, Saif Al-Dīn
2009 Al-mubīn. Edited by Hasan Al-Šaficī. Cairo: Maktabat Wahba.Google Scholar
ALECSO
1989 Al-mucğam Al-carabī Al-’asāsī. Coord. by cAli Al-Kasimi. Tunis: ALECSO.Google Scholar
Al-Fārābī
1970 Kitāb Al-ḥurūf. Edited by Muhsin Mahdi. Beirut: Dār Al-mašriq.Google Scholar
Al-Farāhīdī
1980 Al-cayn, Vol. 1, Edited by Ma̱hzūmi and Sāmrrā’ī. Baghdad: Al-Rashid Publications.Google Scholar
Al-Fayrūzabādī
1986 Al-qāmūs Al-muḥīṭ. Beirut: Al-Risāla Foundation.Google Scholar
Al-Ḥamawi, Yaqūt
1980 Mucğam Al-buldān. 3rd ed., 7 vols. Beirut: Dār Al-fikr.Google Scholar
Al-Jawhari, Ismācīl
1990 Al-ṣiḥāḥ. Edited by Aḥmad cAṭṭār. Beirut: Dār Al-cilm Li’l-malāyīn.Google Scholar
Al-Jurjānī, Al-Šarīf
1983 Kitāb Al-tacrīfāt. Beirut: Dār Al-kutub Al-cilmiya.Google Scholar
Al-Kasimi, Ali
1983 Linguistic and Bilingual Dictionaries. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
2003 Al-mucğamiyya Al-carabiyya. Beirut: Librairie du Liban.Google Scholar
2014 Ṣinacat Al-mucğam Al-tāri̱hī. Beirut: Librairie du Liban.Google Scholar
Al-Kattani, Mohammad
2012 Mawsūcat Al-muṣṭalaḥ fī Al-turā̱t Al-carabī: Al-dinī, Al-cilmī, Al-’adabī. Casablanca: Dār Al-̱taqāfa.Google Scholar
Al-Razī
1967 Muẖtār Al-ṣiḥāḥ. Beirut: Dār Al-kitāb Al-carabī.Google Scholar
Al-Tabrīzī, Al-̱Haṭīb
1983 Taẖdīb ’Islāḥ Al-manṭiq. Beirut: Dār Al-’Āfāq Al-Ğadīda.Google Scholar
Al-̱Ṯacālibī
1996 Fiqh Al-luġa. Edited by Fa’iz Mohammad and Emile Yacqūb. Translated by John Haywood. Beirut: Dār Al-kitāb Al-carabī.Google Scholar
Al-Tahānawī, Mohammad Ali
1996 Kaššāf Iṣṭilāḥāt Alf-unūn wa Al-culūm. Beirut: Labrairie du Liban.Google Scholar
Al-Zama̱hšarī
1979 ’Asās Al-balāġa. Edited by Abd Al-Raḥim Maḥmūd. Beirut: Dār Al-macrifa.Google Scholar
Baalabaki, Ramzi
2014 The Arabic Lexicographical Tradition: From the 2nd/8th to the 12th/18th Century. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Boutaleb, AbdulHadi
2006 Mucğam Taṣḥiḥ luġat Al-’iclām. Beurut: Librairie du Liban.Google Scholar
Fajjāl, Mahmūd
1987 Al-iḥtiğāğ fī Al-carabiya in Al-carab, Vol. 5, 23rd year.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A
1959 “Diglossia.” Word, 15 (2): 325–340. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ḥamad, Abdullah
1992 “Some Remarks on the Conceptual Foundations of the Arabic Linguistic Tadition.” Al-lisān Al-carabī, 36.Google Scholar
Haywood, John A
1956 Arabic Lexicography: Its History, and Its Place in the General History of Lexicography. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Ibn Al-Sikīt
1987 ’Islaḥ Al-mantiq. Edited by Aḥmad Šakir and cAbdessalām Harūn. Cairo: Dār Al-macārif.Google Scholar
Ibn Duraid, Mohammad
1987 Ğamharat Al-luġa. Edited by Ramzi Baalabaki. Beirut: Dār Al-cilm Li’l-malāyīn.Google Scholar
Ibn Faris, Ahmad
1991 Al-Maqayīs. Edited by cAbd Al-Salām Hārun. Beirut: Dār Al-Ğīl.Google Scholar
Ibn Manẓūr
1994 Lisān Al-carab. 3rd ed. Beirūt: Dār Ṣadir.Google Scholar
Ibn Sīnā.
1978 Tisc Rasā’il fīAl-ḥikma wa Al-ṭabiciyāt. Edited by Al-cabd. Cairo: Al-nahḍa Al-carabiya.Google Scholar
I̱hwān Al-ṣafā’
2004 Rasā’il I̱hwān Al-ṣafā’. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir.Google Scholar
Iqbāl, Aḥmad Al-Šarqawī
1987 Mucğam Al-macāğim. Beirut: Dār Al-ġarb Al-’islāmī.Google Scholar
Jamiu, Fatai Owolabi
2014 “Science of Arabic Lexicography: A Survey of Its Emergence and Evolution.” Journal of Education and Practice 5 (14): 60–65.Google Scholar
Kaḥḥāla, cOmar Riḍā
1982 Aclām A-lnisā’. 4th ed. Beirut: Mu’assasat Alrisāla.Google Scholar
Larousse
2008 Larousse des noms propres. Paris: Larousse.Google Scholar
Maclūf, Louis
1908 Al-munğid. Beirut: Dār Al-Mašriq.Google Scholar
Ould Bah, Mohammad El Moukhtar
1996 Tāri̱h Al-naḥw Al-carabī (History of Arabic Grammar). Rabat: ISESCO.Google Scholar
Robins, Robert Henry
1967 A Short History of Linguistics. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Sledd, James H., and Gwin J. Kolb
1955 Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary: Essays in the Biography of a Book. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
The Glorious Quran
Translated by Marmaduke Pickthall.