EDWARD WILLIAM LANE'S LIFE STORY is the subject of a long article by Jason Thompson in Aramco World. Lane is especially known for his massive and magisterial Arabic lexicon and his translation of the Thousand and One Nights. But it seems that this mild mannered philologist had an Indiana Jones side to him as well.

Late one September afternoon in 1825, an apprehensive 24-year-old Englishman arrived in the Eastern Harbor of Alexandria, Egypt. “As I approached the shore,” he wrote, “I felt like an Eastern bridegroom, about to lift up the veil of his bride, and to see, for the first time, the features which were to charm, or disappoint, or disgust him.” He continued:

I was not visiting Egypt merely as a traveller, to examine its pyramids and temples and grottoes, and, after satisfying my curiosity, to quit it for other scenes and other pleasures: I was about to throw myself entirely among strangers; to adopt their language, their customs and their dress; and, in associating almost exclusively with the natives, to prosecute the study of their literature. My feelings therefore, on that occasion, partook too much of anxiety to be very pleasing.

Edward William Lane need not have worried. He would become, one day, Britain’s most renowned scholar of the Middle East. He would write a fascinating study of Egyptian society, a book so definitive and widely read that it would never go out of print; his great Arabic–English dictionary would become a basic, irreplaceable reference work; and his translation of The Arabian Nights would delight and instruct generations of readers. Lane’s name would come to be known throughout the field of Middle Eastern studies, admired by western and Arab scholars alike.

And there's this on his lexicon:

Lane sailed on his third trip to Egypt in July 1842, accompanied by [his wife] Nefeeseh and by his sister, Sophia Poole, and her two sons, Stanley and Stuart. The Lanes were always a close family, and Sophia had been deserted by her husband, so Lane was glad to have her with him. He and Nefeeseh never had children, so he had come to think of Stanley and Stuart as his own. ... This third and longest trip was far different from the preceding ones. Before, Lane had been much in society and traveled extensively through the country. This time he remained at home, sometimes not going out of doors for months on end, working steadily at his overwhelming task, assisted only by Sheikh Ibrahim al-Dasuqi, his Arabic language assistant. Al-Dasuqi helped Lane with copying and could discuss fine points of Arabic grammar and spelling. Every once in a while, for a change of pace, they played Arabic word games together, but Lane’s focus never strayed far from his dictionary.

[...]

The Lanes and Pooles returned to England in 1849 and settled in Worthing, a quiet town on the southern coast. Lane left it just once, and then only to travel to nearby Brighton to visit a dying friend. At Worthing, he maintained the tightly focused lifestyle he had developed in Egypt, beginning each working day early by saying the bismillah, the opening lines of the Qur’an—“In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful”—and working until 10 at night, stopping only for meals and an afternoon walk in the nearby countryside when the weather was fine. Every Friday he put his lexicographical work aside to spend time with his family and perhaps receive a few close friends, but most other callers, no matter how distinguished, were politely but firmly refused by his wife and sister, who closely guarded his precious time. Every Sunday was reserved for studying the Bible, which he read in Hebrew.

The first of the eight volumes of Lane’s Arabic–English Lexicon were published in 1863 and the work’s importance was immediately recognized. Even the London Times took notice: “Of the manner in which Mr. Lane has performed his work it is difficult to speak in terms of too high praise. It displays all the photographic accuracy for which he is so well known, combined with scholarship of a kind—acquired as it was in the East—which is hard to attain. His familiarity with Eastern minds and habits of thought, and with all the objects of Eastern life, give him an uncommon insight into the meaning and intention of an Arab writer…. It is not too much to say that the work, when completed, will do more to advance the study of Arabic than any other which has appeared during this century.”

Working with his incredible industry and persistence, Lane published the succeeding volumes of the Arabic–English Lexicon at roughly two-year intervals, but it was all too apparent that he was racing against time and death.

He finished writing the fourth volume, covering the letters , , and , in 1870, but on the very day it was printed, all but one copy was destroyed by fire. Two years were lost. Lane was 68 years old and in frail health. His response was to increase his efforts, focusing even more tightly than ever on the Lexicon. But composition, printing and proofing could only go so fast. Lane was working on the article for volume six on August 5, 1876 when he was taken ill; he died five days later. The Lexicon’s final three volumes were published under the supervision of his great-nephew, Stanley Lane-Poole, who later made a name for himself in Arab numismatics, among other areas.

Edward William Lane’s Arabic–English Lexicon is still an indispensable reference tool for the classical Arabic language. Of the many scholarly accolades it has received over the decades, the one by the great Cambridge orientalist A. J. Arberry in 1960 is representative: “Every Arabist since Lane has had good cause to bless him for his superhuman labours, and to regret that he had not begun his project earlier in life, so that there might have been a greater chance of its completion. It is certainly true to say, that every work produced in this century relating in any way to Arabic studies has drawn heavily upon the Lexicon. It is a sufficient tribute to its unique greatness, that to this day it remains supreme in the field of Arabic lexicography: no scholar or group of scholars has produced anything to supplant it.”

That evaluation holds true in the 21st century. Professor Manfred Woidich of the University of Amsterdam describes Lane’s Lexicon as “a fine combination of eastern and western scholarship. For the scholar busy with classical Arabic, it is an indispensable working tool which will not be replaced in years to come.”

It's a good article. Read it all.

(Via the Agade list.)