JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Part I.— HISTORY, LITERATURE, &c. 



No. I.— 1868. 



Contributions to Persian Lexicography. — By H. Blochmann, Esq. M. A., 

 Assistant Professor, Calcutta Madrasah, 



[Received lltb April, 1868.] 



One of the greatest lexicographical undertakings which so eminently 

 distinguish our present time, is Lane's Arabic Dictionary. The Arabic 

 student who hitherto had at nearly every step to supply or correct 

 his meagre vocabularies, finds in it all he can desire. The learned 

 natives of India who had looked upon Firuzabadf as insurpassable, are 

 astonished to hear of a Madd i Qamiis. England may indeed be 

 proud of a work which marks an epoch in the history of Arabic 

 learning in Europe. 



We trust that the standard which Lane's Dictionary has created, 

 will soon be followed by a compiler of a Persian Dictionary. There 

 exists no reliable Persian Dictionary. Nothing worth the name has 

 been done for Persian lexicography since the days of Castelli and 

 Meninski. This is a matter of surprise, as there are most excellent 

 sources from which a good Persian dictionary could be compiled. 

 The deficiency of all existing dictionaries lies in this, that the compilers, 

 one and all, have used secondary or tertiary sources, instead of having 

 recourse, as Lane did, to original and carefully selected native works. 



The sources for compiling a reliable Persian dictionary are the 

 lexicographical works written by Indians. In India, as in Tiirau, 



