Reprints

This historic dictionary was the first French-Kurdish dictionary ever published. Compiled by Auguste Jaba, a Polish diplomat in the Russian service in the Middle East, this lexical enterprise initiated an interest in the under-studied language of the Kurds. Entries are written in the modified Arabic script for Kurdish, and are provided with a pronunciation key and translation into French. Historians of the languages of Iraq and Kurdistan will find having this dictionary essential to the unfolding growth of knowledge about this region.

For the student of ancient Iranian documents, this time-honored source for using the sacred texts of the Zoroastrians, this glossary and index is an historical dictionary of an unusual sort. The materials from three works provide the basis for this glossary: the Pahlavi text of Arda Viraf, the tale of Gosht-I Fryano, the Hadokht Nask, and extracts from the Din-Kard and Nirangistan. All of these documents pertaining to Zoroastrian belief and practice are facilitated by this historic glossary. Based on the edition of E. W. West, the text was revised by Martin Haug. A work of scholarly erudition in the nineteenth century, this book, now difficult to find, has now claimed a place among Gorgias Historical Dictionaries.

In an historic attempt to map out the major tribes and families of the Arabic world, Wüstenfeld prepared this work based on three major types of documents. Taken together these sources provide a wealth of information on family names. Wüstenfeld has organized the entries for his register alphabetically, providing a starting point for current day researchers on the Arabic past.

An early example of Islamic history, the Kitab al-ma'arif (“Book of Knowledge”) of ibn Qutayba (ibn Coteiba) has a prominent place. Born in Kufa, in present-day Iraq, ibn Qutayba was a teacher in Baghdad and he was among the first formal historians. This particular work ambitiously covers topics from the beginning of creation and facts about the period before the appearance of Islam (jahiliyya) to the names of the companions of the prophet Mohammed, famous jurists and masters of the oral tradition associated with the prophet (hadith). Presented here in the original Arabic, along with an introduction by Wüstenfeld, this early manual of history is sure to be of interest to anyone considering Islamic outlooks from the ninth century.

Considered to be the most complete dictionary of Old Armenian (also known as Classical Armenian or Grabar, this historic dictionary is essential to the study of this language. Written by three members of the Mekhitarist Order, this project represents the first major attempt to document Old Armenian in any comprehensive way. This two-volume reference work is presented in the Classical Armenian alphabet with definitions given in Latin. The language of this dictionary represents the earliest known form of Armenian, making its value for the history of the language evident.

A representative of the Arabic genre known as “futuh reports,” The Conquest of Syria remains an important historical source although it is now recognized not to be the work of Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Omar Ibn Waqid al-Aslami (called al-Waqidi). This Arabic document, part history, part romantic reconstruction of the past, is one of the main sources narrating the Muslim conquest of Syria. A window into the world of early Muslim self-perception, these documents are a valuable historical source in the sense of being period pieces. Here the Arabic text is presented along with the partial notes and comments of W. Nassau Lees, a noted writer on Eastern culture.

The famous Persian dictionary of Sayyid Abdurrashid, now quite difficult to locate, is an historic dictionary to which linguists still make reference. The Farhang I Rashidi was compiled by the Persian scholar Abd ur-Rashid bin Abd ul-Ghafur Husaini al-Madani al-Tattawi (d. 1653) who lived in Thatta, now the Sindh province of Pakistan. One of two dictionaries compiled by Abd ur-Rashid, this lexicon, presented entirely in Classic Persian, marks a turning point in Persian lexicography and ranks as one of the cultural and literary achievements of the seventeenth century. The two volumes of this historic dictionary are here bound together, providing an affordable alternative to earlier two-part editions.

The “Institutes of Akbar,” or Ain-i-Akbari, are an unconventional history of the 16th century reign of Akbar the Great of the Mughal Dynasty. Ain-i-Akbari is actually the third volume of a much larger Persian document, the Akbarnama composed by Abuul Fazl. Ain-i-Akbari itself is a three-volume work, and the material offered in this set represents the first volume of that three-volume work. Included in this collection are the original Persian text, and the English translation of Heinrich Blochmann.

The incomplete manuscript known by the title Book of Highways and Kingdoms was an ambitious undertaking by Abu Ubayd Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Bakri, an eleventh-century Spanish-Arab geographer who never left al-Andalus. Relying on what he read and what travelers reported to him, al-Bakri composed a substantial reference work describing the geography, climate, people and customs of the world he knew, constructing what was to become a medieval manuscript of renown. Presented here in the original Arabic, and divided into two volumes for convenience of use, this chronicle will be welcomed by medievalists and others interested in the perception of the world in the 11th century.

In this study, H. G. Kleyn deals with the life and works of Jacob Baradaeus and the role he played in the “monophysite” church to the time of his death in 578, including a thorough outline of Jacob’s writings.