8vo. Arabic text, 361 pp., [3 adverts], modern cloth, preliminary pages browned, partly unopened, small marginal cut to title page repaired without loss, light spotting, mainly to end leaves, Matba’at al-Jawa’ib, Qustantuniyah, second edition, 1299 H / 1881.

Synopsis

Ahmad Faris Al-Chidyaq (1804-1887), “a lover of antique and recherché vocabulary, he was nevertheless one of the pioneers of the modern Arab literary awakening, and one of a long line of Lebanese and Syrian scholars” (J. A. Haywood, Arabic Lexicography, p. 90) who contributed to Arab renaissance.
Chidyaq published several works on Arabic language, including a dictionary of English and Arabic published in London in 1891. The first volume of this work covers his impression and observations about Malta, while the second is considered as an Arabic literary masterpiece from the 19th century. Chidyaq describes in “Kashf Al-Mukhabba” his journey through England and France in the mid-19th century.