Arabic-Syriac Dictionary

Mikha’il Murad, the author, was born in 1879, entered the Syro-Chaldean Seminary of St John in Mosul in 1882, and was ordained a priest in 1904. He died in 1952. This book is a reprint of Murad’s Arabic-Syriac dictionary, the first such dictionary ever composed, and the only work of the author. The present volume extends from the letter alif to the beginning of the letter sin; the second half of the dictionary has unfortunately been lost. For each Arabic word given, a number of Syriac equivalents are recorded. The dictionary also gives Syriac equivalents to Arabic idioms. The introduction by Bishop Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim contains a valuable discussion of the history of Syriac lexicography which contains references to and descriptions of Middle Eastern lexica of Syriac little-known to Western scholars. This work will be a useful tool to students, linguists, and scholars of Syriac as well as Christian Arabic and Karshuni. It will also be of value to those interested in the history of Syriac scholarship.