Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/79

 life and customs of the Muslims of modern Egypt, in spite of the researches of numerous travellers and scholars. It remains after more than half a century the standard authority on its subject.

Lane's next work was executed in England. It was a translation of the 'Thousand and One Nights,' or ‘Arabian Nights’ Entertainment,' and came out in monthly parts, illustrated by woodcuts alter drawings by William Harvey, in 1838–40 (2nd edition, edited by E. S. Poole, 1859, frequently reprinted. A selection of in best tales was edited with additions, by Lane's grand-nephew, S. Lane-Pools, in 3 vols. 16mo, 1891). This was the first accurate version of the celebrated Arabic stories, and still remains the best translation for all but professed students. It is not complete, and the coarseness of the original is necessarily excised in a work which was intended for the general public; but the eastern tone, which was lost in the earlier versions, based upon Galland's French paraphrase, is faithfully reproduced, and the very stiffness of the style, not otherwise commendable, has been found to convey something of the impression of the Arabic. The work is enriched with copious notes, derived from translator‘s personal knowledge of Mohammedan life and his wide acquaintance with Arabic literature, and forms a sort of encyclopædia of Muslim customs and beliefs. (The notes were collected and rearranged under the title of ‘Arabian Society in the Middle Ages,' edited by S. Lane-Poole, in 1883.) In 1843 appeared a volume of ‘Selection from the Kur-án,' of which a second revised edition, with an introduction by S. Lane-Poole, appeared in Trübner’s ‘Oriental Series,' 1879.

In July 1842 Lane set sail for Egypt for the third time, and with a new object. In his first visit he was mainly a traveller and explorer; in the second a student of the life of the modern Egyptians; in the third he was an Arabic scholar and lexicographer. The task he had set before himself was to remedy the deficiencies of the existing Arabic-Latin dictionaries by compiling an exhaustive thesaurus of the Arabic language from the numerous authoritative native lexicons. The work was sorely needed, but it is doubtful if even Lane, with all his laborious habits, would have undertaken it had he realised the gigantic nature of the task. The financial difficulty, the expense of copying manuscripts, and the enormous cost of printing, would have proved an insurmountable obstacle but for the public spirit and munificence of Lane’s friend of his earliest Egyptian years, Lord Prudhoe, afterwards (1847) fourth duke of Northumberland, who undertook the whole expense, and whose widow, after his death in 1864, carried on the duke’s project, and supported it to its termination in 1892. When he returned to Cairo in 1842 he took with him his wife, a Greek lady whom he had married in land in 1840, his sister, Mrs. Sophia Poole [q.v.] (afterwards authoress of 'The Englishwoman in Egypt'), and her two sons, and his life could no longer he entirely among his Mohammadan friends. Indeed, his work kept him almost wholly confined to his study. Be denied himself to every one, except on Friday, the Muslim sabbath, and devoted all his energies to the composition of the lexicon. Twelve to fourteen hours a day were his ordinary allowance for study; for six months together he never crossed the threshold of his house, and in all the seven years of his residence he only left Cairo once, for a three days' visit to the Pyramids. At length the materials were gathered, the chief native lexicon (the ‘Tâj-el-’Arûs') upon which ha intended to found his own work, was sufficiently transcribed, and in October 1849 Lane brought his family back to England He soon edited at Worthing, and for more than a quarter of a century devoted all his efforts to completing his task. He worked from morning till night, sparing little time for meals or exercise, and none to recreation, and rigidly denying himself to all but a very few chosen friends. On Sunday, however he closed his Arabic books, but only to take up Hebrew and study the Old Testament.

He return to Europe the acknowledged chief of Arabic scholars, who were generous in their homage. He was made an honorary member of the German Oriental Society, the Royal Asiatic Society, the Royal Society of Literature, &c.; in 1864 he was elected s correspondent of the French Institute; and in 1875, on the occasion of its tercentenary, the university of Leyden granted him the degree of honorary doctor of literature. He declined other offers of degrees and also honours of a different kind, but accepted a civil List pension in 1863, the year in which the first part of the ‘Arabic-English Lexicon’ was published, after twenty years of unremitting labour. The succeeding parts came out in 1865, 1867, 1872, 1874, and posthumously, under the editorship of B. Lane-Poole (unfortunately with unavoidable lacunæ), in 1877, 1885, and 1892. The importance of the dictionary was instantly appreciated by the orientalists of Europe, and the lexicon at once became indispensable to the student of Arabic.

Lane continued his labours in spite of