Abstract
The importance of scientific language unity in the Islamic world was discerned in the early period, thus mu‘cems / dictionaries that compiled Arabic words in terms of their lexical meanings were written while dictionary studies on the terms were also carried out to ensure scientific language unity. The main factor and goal in the formation and development of these studies is the effort to protect and understand the Quran, which is the source of Islam. For this purpose, the words in the Quran that are named Garîbu'l-Qur'an were compiled and explained to understand the rarely used words, in a way that counts as the core of the dictionary studies. In the following process, these studies have developed in terms of content and have claimed to cover all words in Arabic. As far as is known, the first example that complies with the dictionary definition was provided by Halil b. Ahmed (d. 175/791) in the 2/8th century. Then, different types of dictionaries with distinctive methods yet serving the same purpose emerged. After the maturation of compilation activities in Islamic studies, some original terms emerged in the disciplines such as fiqh, hadith, mysticism, and kalam, and a body of enriched literature was formed. For this reason, it became necessary to compile the terms in question under a single roof to determine their scope and to ensure scientific language unity. This study aims to examine closely the glossaries written for this purpose in the Islamic world and to reveal their contributions to scientific language unity. Within this scope, primarily some brief information was provided about the historical process, sources, types, and contents of Arabic dictionaries, and then glossaries were examined in terms of source, content, and method, including their interactions both among themselves and with other dictionaries. Furthermore, the glossaries in question were categorized in terms of method, and their contribution to the objectives was determined with a critical approach. Glossaries can be examined under two main headings in terms of their "content" and "design". Regarding content, glossaries are divided into two subgroups: "dictionaries containing terms in a certain field of science" and "dictionaries covering the concepts in Islamic disciplines". The first group includes dictionaries dealing with the terms of a certain discipline and those written by certain authors to explain the terms relating to their sects. Abu Hafs Necmüddîn Ömer b. Mohammed b. Ahmed en-Nasafi as-Semerkandî's (d. 537/1142) Tilbetu't-talebe and Kasim al-Konevî's (d. 978/1571) Enîsü'l-fukahâ, written in the field of fiqh terms, are typical examples of this genre. The second group contains the works that gather the concepts of all Islamic disciplines in a single work. The most typical example of such glossaries is Cürcânî’s Kitâbu'd-ta‘rîfât, a work that left a profound influence in the Islamic world. In terms of design, although there are different types, it is generally preferred to arrange the concepts alphabetically. However, as Cürcânî applied in Ta‘rîfât, some authors started the alphabetical order from the first letter, based on the usage of the concept they dealt with, while others listed the concepts according to the alphabetical order of the first letter in their nominative form, based on the root form of the concept. It is possible to give Mu‘cemu'l-mustalahâti'n-nahviyye ve’s-sarfiyye by Muhammed Semir Najib el-Lebîdî as an example to the second group.