Questions About Lexicon By Edward Lane?
-
Peace,
It is mostly a translation of Taj al-Arus by Muhammad al-Murtadza Husaini al-Zubaidi with Lane's own explanations here and there to make it more useful for an English audience. So it is based on one of the most trusted dictionaries of Classic Arabic which is in itself a summary of several Classic Arabic dictionaries.
-
In many Classic Arabic works you can see the authors discussing the definitions, show different opinions, different origins. Many of them observed and researched and tried to see a pattern in the root forms. Thus their work, to my eyes, is one of scientific research into the language. But it is always fallible. One of the big differences is with Hadith, is although some meanings are based on what a Hadith said a word meant in the time of Jahilliyah, the dictionaries are a result of observation, how words were used by the people. And so it doesn't use the "he said-she said" system of Hadith.
You can see the observations by how more meanings were added to roots over time.
But of course with the lenght of time, you can see a shift in the Tafseers and Lughat's. In the early Tafseers and Lughat's they accept words were taken from other languages. But in the middle ages Arabic was seen as a divine pure language that never took meanings from other languages, which is of course nonsense.
I am just a novice as I am just learning all the dictionaries, so people as Samia can give you a better analysis.
-
Thanks a lot again for more detailed answer. I agree on your take about Lane's work, that it is just a translation of Taj Al-Arus predominately, but he also consulted others that he could get his hands on, with his explanation for ease of audiences. However, we know that he was not atleast openly a Muslim. Hence, some would just question his work due to biases that already exsist in Muslim world towards Westren scholors. But what I am curious about that any Arab linguistic after evaluating his work objectively ever able to prove or question that either Lane's work of translation is truely and purely a scholarly work, free of any personal biases, or it is not.
-
I think it is almost impossible to say Lane or ANY other lexicon is completely free of bias. Use a lexicon in conjunction with other tools and reasoning, this is the best approach.
I personally have not seen a bad word said about Lane's Lexicon, but as I said, no-one would say it is perfect.
-
Thanks Wakas. I realise no human work is or can be perfect. However, when I look at Lane's Lexicon I am thinking that I am reading Lexical understanding of those Arab writers in english. I realise this not as good as being able to understand their writings myself. However, while this being away from ideal world, can I trust Lane keeping in mind limitation related to difficulties about translation from one language to another. However, there are lot of people who have Arabic as their mother tongue, as well understand English. These people should heve been able to say that his work is complete distortion and deception. Has any body said this in history so far?
Badar
-
Many Arabic scholars have claimed it to be one of the best dictionaries, so yes, it is viewed as trustworthy by many.
-
Abdul Mannan Omar (famous translator of the Musnah of Imam Hanbal and the Qur'an translation by Allama Nooruddin) says in his "Dictionary of the Holy Qur'an" on page 49-D about Edward William Lane
"Arabic-English Lexicon by Edward William Lane This work contains all the classical words, their derivative and their usages, ample grammatical and critical prose and verse. It is offered in 8 volumes and took the author more than 30 years to complete this work, in its fullness and richness, deep research, correctness, and its simplicity transcends the dictionary of any language. It was composed by means of its munificence of Duke of Northumberland under the British government in the year 1892 AD. The Lord Prudhoe enabled him to undertake the work with the help of Sheikh Ibrahim Abd Al-Ghaffar al=-Dasuki. He had the good fortune to acquire a large folio-volume of the great work Taj al- 'Arus and refers to several of the most important of the works from which it was compiled."
My own personal note, Lane did not finish the Lexicon, he died before he could finish part 6 to 8 that covers 3/Ayn to Waw/9. His cousin, Stanley Pool, finished the work using the notes of his uncle. He also had helped on the Lexicon before Lane's death and so knew what he was doing. You can see the difference in thickness of the volumes. Part 1 to 5 are atleast 1/3 thicker then part 6 to 8.
If you buy the volumes, then buy the one from India which is around 250$ compared to the ridiculous expensive American version of 700$. The Indian version is beautiful and well-cloth. Also I recommend Abdul Omar's "Dictionary of the Holy Qur'an" which is the most handy and usable Qur'anic Arabic dictionary on the market, and it is only around 40-50$ on Amazon.
-
Salam bkanwar2. Lane's lexicon is useful up to a point. As other forum members have pointed out, Lane's work is based on other dictionaries.
However, Arabic did not evolve in isolation, nor did it suddenly appear at the time of the revelation of the Quran. Arabic had been in existence for hundreds of years before the revelation. The evolution of Arabic is, in part, derived from other seimitic languages most notably Hebrew and Aramaic.
You will find many words in Arabic, that do not have an Arabic root, and when this occurs it is neccesary to switch into Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons to find the root word. For this reason to rely on Arabic dictionaries and lexicons alone, deprives a reader of a proper understanding of the Arabic text.
This connection between Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic, is not to be taken lightly. The Torah was revealed in Hebrew, The Injeel was revealed in Aramaic, and the Quran contains mutliple references to the text of the Torah and Injeel. Doing an exhaustive study of the words, not only in Arabic, but in Hebrew and Aramaic as well, clears up many ambiguities, and strengthens the primary definition of the word.
There is another level of comprehension of the Arabic language, which goes deeper into the meaning of the words. This involves an understanding of the pictographic symbols from which the letters of the Arabic language are derived. These pictogtaphic symbols are difficult to decipher due to the fact that the lithic societies in which these pictograms evolved dissapeared with the iron age. Lithic societies saw the world around them in a very different way. We pay almost no attention to a stone lying on the ground, however in lithic societies each stone had a purpose, was the basis for a tool of some kind, and their eyes saw much more in a stone than we see.
Current examples of the remnants of the pictograms are the L or laam in Arabic which is a representation of a herders staff. Pictographic analysis is complicated by the fact that different languages assigned different sounds to the pictographs. For example the S or Sin in Arabic, which looks like water, is a M or meen in Hebrew. However the Arabic word for water is Ma'a, which leaves the analyst wondering what happened to the letters. Some letters have no confusion, B or Be in Arabic, which looks like a tent enclosure, is also Be in Hebrew, and the word for house is Beyt or Beth, which demonstrates the consistency in some cases.
Why is all this important? Because Allah sent us Quran for all time. Quran is valid in the stone age, it is valid today, and will be valid ten thousand years into the future. Verses that guided people in the stone age, guide us today, and will guide us ten thousand years from now. Regardless if the momin is living in the stone age, living today, or living on the moon ten thousand years from now, the Quran will always be the correct guide telling us when to pray, when to fast, how to give charity.
This timelessness of the Quran is a valuable tool in understanding its verses. Whenever we read its verses and try an understand, and we are presented with choices, the correct choice is usually that which makes sense in the stone age, makes sense today, and makes sense in ten thousand years in the future living on the moon.
Whenever I see debates, where people argue about when to start Ramadan, and the arguments are over month, moon, crescent, full moon, red moon, I think to myself, in ten thousand years when a momin may be living on the moon, which moon will he use. Obviously something is wrong with our current understanding of some issues in the Quran. Obviously Lane's lexicon wont be able to solve the problem.
Inshallah Allah will bless us with wisdom.
-
Thanks, Bro Arnold. I have both of those, Omar I bought couple of years ago, at your suggestion. I have read his introduction and praise for Lane's work. But this is only one that I have seen in writting.
Salam Al Araf. You bring out some important and intresting issues. However, way I look at the issue of Arabic language is as follows.
-
Quran was revealed in simple spoken language of people at the time of Prophet. Not the Language that we know today with proper noun Arabic.
-
There are two major aspects of any language. One is speech or spoken language. The spoken language dies in time instantaneously as soon as speaker is done speaking. The only way to time tested way to preserve spoken language is by a writting system. In past it was the only means. Now we can supplement writting with audio visual means.
-
The language of Quran as a spoken language is dead.
-
However, as written one appears to be well preserved.
-
Hence only way to understand Quran by utilizing these written scritps,ie., Quranic sript itself, lexicons, grammar books and other supplements such as poetry.
Badar
-
-
Quotes
Prof. A.J. Arberry (who translated 'Al Quran' wrote "It (Lane's Lexicon) is a work of such fundamental importance and of such matchless excellence that praise for it is quite superfluous. Every Arabist since Lane has had good cause to bless him for his superhuman labours ... It is certainly true to say that every work produces in this century relating in any way to Arabic studies has drawn heavily on the Lexicon." -
Thanks Waqas, Arberry is a Westren scholar.
AL Araf, just one more comment, Be B leading to Bait as house is much latter concept of the word. Originally it only meant some thing to be done in night not necessarily in a house. Furthermore, common usage of the word in poetry was meant for "a veres".
Badar
