Previously I had compiled a list of some of the most famous and well-known Qurʼānic Exegeses that have been written throughout history. This time I have tried to compile a list of some of the famous Arabic dictionaries that are beneficial for a student of Qur’ān and Aḥādīth. These have been collected and taken from a book titled Darsnāmehʼī Fahmʼī Hadīth by ʿAbd al-Hādī Masʿūdī.
Arabic Dictionaries
| Name | Author | Birth Date | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kitāb al-Jīm | Isḥāq b. Mirār al-Shaybānī | 213 AH | 3 | The author has looked into more than 80 tribes and seen how they have used different words. |
| Al-Munjid fī al-Lughah | ʿAli b. Ḥasan al-Hināʼī | 230 AH | 1 | |
| Jumhurah al-Lughah | Muḥammad b. Ḥasan b. Darīd | 321 AH | 3 | The author has not brought in vocabulary that was rarely used - but has a lot of Qurʼānic and Aḥādīth examples. He also points towards words that had entered Arabic from other languages. |
| Dīwān al-Adab | Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm al-Fārābī | 350 AH | 4 | |
| Tahdhīb al-Lughah | Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Azharī | 282 AH | 8 | The author stayed with Arab bedouins and heard how they were using vocabulary. |
| Al-Muḥīṭ fī al-Lughah | Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbbād al-Ṭāliqānī | 326 AH | 1 | The author was a close associate of Ibn ʿUmayd - a Buyid intellectual - and this book is one of the first to be ordered in alphabetical order. It does not make use of poetry too much. |
| Al-Ṣiḥāḥ fī al-Lughah | Ismāʿīl b. Ḥammād al-Jawharī | 393 AH | 7 | The author only added words which he considered to be correct and therefore many words are not found in his work (because he considered them incorrect). |
| Maqāyīs al-Lughah | Aḥmad b. Fāris b. Zakariyyā | 395 AH | 6 | The author has explained the different meanings and usage of words. |
| Kitāb al-Afʿāl | Saʿīd b. Muḥammad al-Maʿāfarī | After 400 AH | 5 | The author has discussed rare words and their meanings as well. |
| Al-Mukhaṣṣaṣ | ʿAli b. Ismāʿīl | 398 AH | 6 | This book can be considered a collection of all the previous books of Arabic vocabulary by the end of the 4th century Hijri. |
| Asās al-Balāghah | Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī | 467 AH | 2 | Zamakhsharī had ijtihād in linguistics and had heard the words from people of Najd and other places of current day Saudi Arabia, and has used more than 5000 poems to explain the meanings of different words. He has also explained the literal and metaphorical meaning of relevant words as used by the Arabs. |
| Lisān al-ʿArab | Muḥammad b. Mukarram al-Anṣārī | 630 AH | 1 | |
| Al-Miṣbāḥ al-Munīr | Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAli al-Fayyūmī | 770 AH | 1 | This book discusses various meanings of synonyms and antonyms and as well as the various meanings of the Abwāb of Thulāthī Mazīd. |
| Al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ | Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-Fayrūzʼābādī | 729 AH | 1 | |
| Kulliyyāt | Ayyūb b. Mūsā al-Ḥusaynī | 1028 AH | 1 | This book is good for understanding the meaning of philosophical and jurisprudential vocabulary. |
| Tāj al-ʿUrūs | Sayyid Muḥammad Murtaḍā al-Zubaydī | 1145 AH | 40 | One of the most comprehensive books, and the author brings a lot of poetry to help understand the usage of words. |
Sayyid Ali studied in the seminary of Qom from 2012 to 2021, while also concurrently obtaining a M.A in Islamic Studies from the Islamic College of London in 2018. In the seminary he engaged in the study of legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophy, eventually attending the advanced kharij of Usul and Fiqh in 2018. He is currently completing his Masters of Education at the University of Toronto and is the head of a private faith-based school in Toronto, as well as an instructor at the Mizan Institute and Mufid Seminary.
