Muhit Al-Muhit is an early modern Arabic dictionary written by the Lebanese polymath Butrus al-Bustani (1819–1883), one of the leading figures of the Nahda.
Mindful of the importance of pedagogy, he created the dictionary to make it easier for teachers and students to attain language proficiency.
[2] The work was also strongly motivated by the writer's Syrian nationalist ideology, leveraging language as a unifying factor for the peoples of the Levant.
Bustani introduced new lexical items in Muhit Al-Muhit, expanded the meaning of others, and added brief modern examples of word uses.
He also removed or reduced features typical to classical Arabic lexicography such as using Quranic and poetic verses as references to lexicographical use.