Al Mawrid (English-Arabic dictionary) (Hardcover)

by Mounir Baalbaki (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The most authoritative and up-to date dictionary which has become the standard work in its field. It contains about 100.000 entries, and extremely rich in idioms and technical terms. Its appendices include proverbs, biographical entries, abbreviations etc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1328 pages
• Publisher: Dar El Ilm Lilmalayin; 33 edition (January 1999)
• ISBN-10: 1894412885
• ISBN-13: 978-1894412889
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,070,015 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful to learners of Arabic, February 23, 2001

By	J. E. S. Leake "sailor and scholar" (Offshore, Persian Gulf) - See all my reviews

This review is from: AL Mawrid (Arabic-English Dictionary) (Hardcover)

The Mawrid Arabic-English is a good, complete dictionary, perhaps - no, certainly - the best published in the Middle East. It works in alphabetical order, which is good for the beginner as well as for the intermediate learner who's searched through a root-order dictionary without success for a word. The major flaw with this book is that it's aimed at Arab readers and as a result, simple grammatical information like broken plurals or masdars is not shown with the base noun or verb. Learners of Arabic will find the root-order Wehr more useful, but if they can afford two, buy this too, especially as Wehr hasn't been updated in over 25 years while the Mawrid is frequently updated. (I own both.)

The Mawrid English-Arabic dictionary is perhaps the best available because, though the Oxford English-Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage is more useful to learners of Arabic for reasons of Arabic grammatical content, the Oxford is 40 years old and the language had expanded significantly. Again, buy both, but here the Mawrid English-Arabic would be my first choice (you can always use Wehr to look up the grammatical info).

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Al-Mawrid Qaamus, June 14, 2001

By	Haseeb (Tempe, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: AL Mawrid (Arabic-English Dictionary) (Hardcover)

A few years ago, a brother at a masjid gave this dictionary to me as a gift. Before that, the Hans Wehr dictionary was all I had to go on. Since this dictionary isn't based on the three consonant root system, there is no need to know the root of an arabic word before looking it up. There have been quite a few words which I could not find in my Hans Wehr because I simply didn't know the root. I use this dictionary to look up words when I don't know the root. Once a word is found, I can easily find the root by looking at the arabic definition and similar words provided. Knowing the root enables me to use my Hans Wehr in order to find the verb forms, examples of usage, and more elaborate definitions in english.

This dictionary doesn't give the verb forms and the definitions are not that detailed because examples of word usage is nonexistent. The book is also too large and a real pain in the neck to carry around. It's good for looking up words quickly and finding roots, but for more serious study of arabic there is no substitute for the Hans Wehr dictionary of modern written arabic.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Throw your Oxford in the trash!, August 3, 2001

By	"l1hobbs" (Grovetown, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Al Mawrid (English-Arabic/ Arabic-English dictionary) dictionary) (Hardcover)

This is the best English - Arabic out today! This is a great tool for students of all levels. I am an advanced student who religiously uses Hans Weir (3-letter root), and this is a great supplement. It has more words than the Oxford dictionary and the definitions are CLOSER TO THE PRECISE MEANING! Added plus: If you decide to use the Arabic - English portion, it has the words classified by how they are spelled, and not by the root. So if you come across a word and can't figure out its root, not to fear... Al Marwid will save the day!