This is the first book-length study of Arabic lexicography in the post-formative period (ca. 1200-1800). It provides a window into the dynamics of the discipline and the intellectual debates that unfolded in the study of the Arabic language. With a focus on speech errors and loanwords, the author explains how scholars integrated new language phenomena into tradition. By reading the dictionary as a form of commentary that departs from its master text to expand and challenge its content, this book offers a new understanding of the vibrant field of Arabic lexicography and commentary culture at large.
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Note on Transliteration and Translation
Introduction: From Legend to Discipline
1The Return to Philology
2The End of the Formative Period
3Aspects of adab
4The Boundaries of Language in the Post-formative Period
1 The Dictionary as a Commentary
1The Commentary Tradition
2How to Invite Commentary
3A Focus on adth
4Conclusion
2 Anthologies of Errors: Lan al-mma in the Post-formative Period
1Lan al-mma in the Post-formative Period
2A Genre of Its Own: Engagement with al-arrs Durrat al-ghaww
3From the Classic to the Contemporary: ghala mashhr
4Benevolent Approaches to lan
5Conclusion
3 The Social Life of Loanwords: Five Hundred Years of tarb
1Tarb Historically
2From al-Jawlq to al-Muibb: Loanwords in the Post-formative Period
3Loanwords as Pretext
4Conclusion
Conclusion
Abstract
Bibliography
Index of Names and Works
Index of Subjects and Terms
Colinda Lindermann (Dr. phil., Freie Universität Berlin, 2025) works as a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, Belgium. Her research interests include Islamic intellectual history and history of knowledge, Arabic language scholarship and comparative philology, and pre-Islamic poetry.
