al-Fīrūzābādī

al-Fīrūzābādī (born February or April 1326, Kāzerūn, Iran—died Jan. 13, 1414, Zabīd, Yemen) was a lexicographer who compiled an extensive dictionary of Arabic that, in its digest form, Al-Qāmūs (“The Ocean”), served as the basis of later European dictionaries of Arabic.

After teaching in Jerusalem (1349–59), al-Fīrūzābādī traveled through western Asia and Egypt and settled at Mecca (1368), where he remained for 15 years. Travels to India and another 10 years at Mecca preceded his appointment in 1395 as chief judge (qadi) of Yemen. Over the course of his lifetime, al-Fīrūzābādī wrote more than 40 works, the best known of which was his dictionary, now lost. A consolidation of two earlier Arabic dictionaries, the work ran to at least 60 volumes. There were early 19th-century publications of the Al-Qāmūs extract of this work at Calcutta, at Üsküdar (Scutarı, opposite Istanbul), and at Cairo.