FARHANG-E RAŠĪDĪ, a Persian dictionary compiled in India in 1064/1654 by the poet and scholar ʿAbd-al- Rašīd b. ʿAbd-al-Ḡafūr Ḥosaynī Tattavī (q.v.). ʿAbd-al-Rašīd was also the author of the Arabic-Persian dictionary Montaḵab al-loḡāt, compiled in 1046/1636-37, and of a short tract on Arabicized Persian vocabulary, Resāla-ye moʿarrabāt. The Farhang-e rašīdī includes an introduction (moqaddema), twenty-four chapters (bāb), and a conclusion (ḵātema). The introduction deals with the vocabulary and the grammar of the Persian language and is one of the earliest serious attempts at describing Persian grammar; it has been published separately (ed. and tr. F. Splieth as Grammaticae Persicae praecepta ac regula, Halle, 1846). It was used by ʿAbd-al-Rašīd’s younger contemporary ʿAbd-al-Wāseʿ Hānsawī as a base for his own work on grammar entitled Resāla-ye ʿAbd-al-Wāseʿ. Farhang-e rašīdī is organized alphabetically. Words are listed according to their first letter, and all entries starting with the same letter constitute one chapter (bāb). Chapters are subdivided into sections (faṣl), where words with the same second letter are grouped together. Many of the sections have additions called esteʿārāt, devoted to compound words and idiomatic expressions. The pronunciation of the word is indicated by giving the sequence of vowels. Sometimes the author provides Indian equivalents for the listed words. The entries include quotations from many early Persian poets. ʿAbd-al-Rašīd lists as his main sources the well-known Persian dictionaries Majmaʿ al-fors of Sorūrī and Farhang-e jahāngīrī. He uses the latter work extensively, revising many of its entries, correcting their definitions, and making them more precise. Some scholars consider Farhang-e rašīdī an abridged and corrected version of Farhang-e jahāngīrī. Analysis of the Farhang-e rašīdī show that ʿAbd-al-Rašīd also used other medieval Persian farhangs such as Ṣeḥāḥ al-fors, Meʿyār-e jamālī, Adāt al-fożalāʾ, Farhang-e zafāngūyā, Moʾayyed al-fożalāʾ, Farhang-e Wafāʾī,Toḥfat al-aḥbāb, and Farhang-e Mīrzā Ebrāhīm. Farhang-e rašīdī in turn was used as a source for the Persian dictionaries Serāj al-loḡāt (1147/1734-35), Baḥār-e ʿajam (1162/1749), and Ḡīāṯ al-loḡāt (1242/1826-27). Farhang-e rašīdī is highly valued as one of the most authoritative, reliable, and complete Persian dictionaries. It was used by the European Persianists J. A. Vullers and F. Steingass for their own works.
See also DICTIONARIES i.
Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):
ʿAbd-al- Rašīd Tattavī, Farhang-e rašīdī, ed. M. Zulfacar Ali and M. Aziz ur-Rahman as The Farhang i Rashidi: A Persian Dictionary, 2 vols., Calcutta, 1875; ed. M. ʿAbbāsī, 2 vols., Tehran, 1337 Š./1958.
Ḥ. Āḥādof, Farhang-e rašīdī: hamčūn aṯar-e leksekogrāfī, Dushanbe, 1981.
S. Baevskiĭ, Opisanie persidskikh rukopiseı Instituta narodov Azii (Description of the Persian manuscripts at the Institute of Asian Peoples), fasc. 4, Moscow, 1962, pp. 45-46; fasc. 5, Moscow, 1968, pp. 49-51.
H. Blochmann, “Contributions to Persian Lexicography,” J(R)ASB 37, 1868, pp. 20-24.
V. Kapranov, Tadjiksko-persidskaya lexicographiya v Indii XVI-XIX vv. (Tajik-Persian lexicography in India, 16th-19th cents.), Dushanbe, 1987.
Š. Naqawī, Farhang-nevīsī-e fārsī dar Hend wa Pākestān, Tehran, 1341 Š./1962.
Storey III/1, pp. 35-36, 116, 123-24.
(Solomon Bayevsky)
Originally Published: December 15, 1999
Last Updated: December 15, 1999
