A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Edward William Lane's 214th Birthday

Edward William Lane
The great pioneer anthropologist and lexicographer Edward William Lane was born on this day in 1801, as I believe I have noted every year since I started blogging.

Lane's works, cited fully in the link above, give us a superb description of Egypt in the Muhammad  ‘Ali era, while his Arabic-English Lexicon remains unmatched in English for Classical Arabic. I annually note his birthday for those reasons and because I share the date, though I am rather younger than he.

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