Al-Bustan wa Huwa Mu’jam Laghawi. TWO VOLUMES.

Abdallah al-Bustani (1854-1930) was a Lebanese linguist. He was educated in Beirut by two leading grammarians of the period, Nassif Yazigi and Yusuf al-Asir. He was a lecturer at the al-Hikma School in Beirut from 1900.
Al-Bustani translated into Arabic many European novels, wrote poems and edited classical Arabic poetry. His major work is the dictionary of al-Bustan in two volumes (1927). It is a comprehensive Arabic-Arabic dictionary and one of the three most comprehensive dictionaries that were compiled towards the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. Al-Bustani later published an abridged edition of al-Bustan entitled Fakihat al-Bustan. His reason for making this lexicon was that there was a very strong need for a lexicon for students. He stated in the introduction: “As the American press saw a need for a language lexicon containing words needed by school students, of different grades and levels, of cheap price, within the reach of everybody, I drew the attention of Shaikh Abdullah al-Bustani, whom I delegated to compose the lengthy lexicon titled Al-Bustan (Orchard) to summarize it to the extent that will meet students’ needs. He honoured my request of making this book, and gave it the title Fakihat al-Bustan”.