This work is the product of over thirty years of unrelenting labour. It is a work of such 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. As it originally appeared and was later reproduced, the Lexicon consisted of 8 large, cumbersome volumes, which made it difficult to use. Now, for the 8 large volumes in presented in 2 compact books. It is now possible to keep the Lexicon on the working desk and refer to it with ease. ‘It is a work of such fundamental importance and of such matchless excellence that praise for it is quite superfluous. Every Arabist since Lane has had good cause to bless him for his superhuman labours..... 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.