The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Wonderful achievement by lexicon man

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 02, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Wonderful achievement by lexicon man

J.S. Ifthekhar

Hyderabad: Where is Ain Shams University? Or for that matter what is Dar Al Athar Al Islamiyyah? Wrack your brain but you wouldn't be able to figure it out. Just refer to the International Directory of Islamic Cultural Institutions and you will know that the first one is in Cairo and the second is the house of Islamic antiquities located in the National Museum of Kuwait.

Unique directory

This unique directory contains some 4,371 institutions located in 109 countries. Academies, research centres, libraries, museums, universities and educational institutions across the globe along with their addresses are listed in this 234-page directory.

But where to find this directory? Yakoob Miran Mujtahedi is the man to turn to. He has many such rare books and dictionaries in his possession. Yes, he is the same person whose most comprehensive Urdu-English dictionary is finally seeing the light of the day.

Impressive collection

Guess how many lexicons he possesses? Hold your breath - the figure is a staggering 60! Quite appropriately the plaque on his Chanchalguda house reads "Dictionary House". Mujtahedi, who has been compiling the dictionary for the last 25 years, has accumulated a cupboard full of lexicons of different languages. He has acquired most of these himself and a few have been gifted by friends. His impressive collection includes all the important dictionaries in English and Urdu. He also has rare lexicons such as the Dictionary of Islam, a glossary of Islamic technical terms from English to Persian and vice-versa. It contains scientific, literary and philosophical terms mostly encountered in the study of Islam and the Iranian civilisation.

The 75-year-old lexicographer also has an Arabic-English and English-Arabic dictionary. He also boasts of the Pakistani Ahle Qalm ki Directory. This 534-page tome lists in alphabetical order names and addresses of writers, poets and scholars from Pakistan.

"These dictionaries have been of immense help to me in compilation of my own lexicon," says Mujtahedi who retired as deputy director of translations. His three-volume dictionary is expected to roll out of the press in three months.

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