LisÃÂn al-ÿArab () is a dictionary of Arabic completed by Ibn Manzur in 1290.
Ibn Manzur's objective in this project was to reindex and reproduce the contents of previous works to facilitate readers' use of and access to them. In his introduction to the book, he writes:
Occupying 20 printed book volumes (in the most frequently cited edition), it was the best known dictionary of the Arabic language for hundreds of years, as well as one of the most comprehensive. Ibn Manzur compiled it from other sources to a large degree. The most important sources for it were the of Azharë, Al-Muḥkam of Ibn Sidah, Al-NihÃÂya of Ibn Athër and Jauhari's á¹¢iḥÃÂḥ, as well as the ḥawÃÂshë (glosses) of the latter (KitÃÂb at-Tanbëh wa-l-êá¸ÂÃÂḥ) by Ibn Barrë. It follows the á¹¢iḥÃÂḥ in the arrangement of the roots: The headwords are not arranged by the alphabetical order of the radicals as usually done today in the study of Semitic languages, but according to the last radical - which makes finding rhyming endings significantly easier. Furthermore, the LisÃÂn al-Arab notes its direct sources, but not or seldom their sources, making it hard to trace the linguistic history of certain words. Murtaá¸Âá al-Zabëdë corrected this in his TÃÂj al-ÿArà «s, that itself goes back to the LisÃÂn. The LisÃÂn, according to Ignatius d'Ohsson, was already printed in the 18th century in Istanbul, thus fairly early for the Islamic world.