4to. 690 pp., Arabic text within borders, title printed in red, modern hard back binding, wormholes throughout, mainly in margins not affecting text, Provenance: Private library of Nakhle Fawaz, published by Matbaʻat al-Jawaʼib, Qustantiniyah, 1299 A. H./ 1881.

Synopsis

“Faris al-Shiyaq, whose interest in Arabic, its lexicon, and its dictionaries goes back to his childhood, did not share Butrus al-Bustani’s views regarding “al-Qamus” of Fairuzabadi. In fact, Faris al-Shidyaq directed severe criticism against Fairuzabadi’s al-Qamus. His fierce attack on al-Qamus was intended to reveal that linguistic problems are not inherent in Arabic, but rather in al-Qamus- a representative of Arabic dictionaries that were incapable of serving the needs of “modern” age. This attack on al-Qamus by al-Shidyaq was intended to spur interest in the compilation of a modern dictionary that would be easy to use by Arabic speakers, and that would take a modern approach to language.
As Faris al-Shidyaq states in his introduction of “al-Jasus ‘ala al-Qamus” the motivation behind the compilation of his work lies in the 24 criticisms are taken from his rather lengthy and somewhat disorganized introduction in which he spells out his views about classical Arabic dictionaries”. (Hans-Josef Niederehe: History and Historiography of Linguistics).