20 questions for: Graeme Andrews (#8)

How to download Graeme Andrew's Lane's Lexicon

Visit https://github.com/laneslexicon/lexicon and follow the instructions given at the website. It runs on almost every operating system (including MS-Windows, Apple devices, and Linux). Note that it is a desktop-app, you cannot run it on your mobile.

The big advantages of Graeme's lexicon are:

• You can search for roots, headwords or any word you want to locate in English OR Arabic in the entire lexicon! (which makes it perfect if you are looking for proverbs, sayings, words that change the meaning when going along with certain prepositions, etc.)
• You can copy both the English and Arabic text and use it in Word, etc.
• Search history
• You can set bookmarks
• you can adjust fonts, colors, diacritical marks, etc.
• It is very fast and stable

You can download it for free. There is no hidden subscription or whatsoever.

Who was Edward William Lane?

Lane (1801 – 1876) was a British lexicographer. He was educated privately, mainly by his parents. He was very good at mathematics, hence, he should go to Cambridge, with a view to entering the Church, but Lane only stayed for a short time. Instead, he joined an elder brother in London, who worked as an engraver.
It was at that time when Lane started devoting his time to the study of Arabic. When he became very sick (high fever; he almost died), the doctor's advised him to move abroad.

In 1825, when he was a young man of 24 years, Lane moved to Cairo, mingling with the locals and taking notes of everything he saw and heard. He engaged two professors to teach him Arabic, one was Sheikh al-Tantawi (1810-1861).

Lane got himself an Arabic name and adopted the Egyptian manners and customs. He wanted to publish a “Description of Egypt” but struggled to find a publisher.

He had returned to Egypt several times later – collecting material for his greatest piece of work: the “Arabic-English Lexicon”. He managed to convince the fourth Duke of Northumberland to finance his project (and after his death the Duke's widow continued to do so). Lane worked on his Lexicon for almost twenty years before he agreed to publish it.

Unfortunately, Lane could not finish his great work. He died in August 1876 at the age of 75.

Lane's famous Arabic-English-Lexicon

Until the 19th century, all Arabic dictionaries in Europe were written in Latin. Lane told the Duke of Northumberland (who eventually financed his project): “There are thousands of Arabic words and phrases which Cicero himself could not have expressed [in Latin].“

In 1842, for the third time, Lane sailed to Egypt. It was not only his longest but also his most special trip. Before that Lane mingeled with the locals and traveled throughout Egypt. This time, however, he stayed at home, sometimes not going out of doors for months, working steadily on his project, assisted only by Sheikh Ibrahim al-Dasuqi, his Arabic language assistant as historian Jason Thompson tells in his book. With al-Dasuqi, Lane discussed fine points of Arabic grammar and spelling.

Lane returned to England in 1849 and settled in a quiet town on the southern coast. Lane continued living his ultra-focused lifestyle he had developed in Egypt. It is said that he started each working day very early by saying the opening lines of the Qur'an (“In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful”) and finished at 10 pm at night.

The first of the eight volumes of Lane's Arabic–English Lexicon were published in 1863. He published the succeeding volumes at two-year intervals.

Lane was unable to complete the lexicon. He had arrived at the letter Qāf, the 21st letter of the Arabic alphabet, but in 1876 he died at Worthing, Sussex. Lane's great-nephew Stanley Lane-Poole finished the work based on his incomplete notes and published it in the twenty years following his death.