Arabic–English Lexicon

The Arabic–English Lexicon is an Arabic–English dictionary compiled by Edward William Lane (died 1876), It was published in eight volumes during the second half of the 19th century.

In 1842, Lane, who had already won fame as an Arabist for his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians and his version of the One Thousand and One Nights, received a sponsorship from Lord Prudhoe, later Duke of Northumberland, to compile an Arabic–English dictionary.

Since the Muslim scholars there were reluctant to lend manuscripts to Lane, the acquisition of materials was commissioned to Ibrahim Al-Dasuqi (1811–1883), a graduate of Azhar and a teacher in Boulaq.

[2] In order to collect and collate the materials, Lane stayed in Cairo for seven years, working arduously with little rest and recreation.

Back to England, Lane continued to work on the dictionary with zeal, complaining that he was so used to the cursive calligraphy of his Arabic manuscripts that the Western print strained his eyes.