FIRUZABADI, AL-

in full Abu 'l-tahir Muhammad Ben Ya'kub Ben Muhammad Ben Ibrahim Majd Al-din Al-shafi'i Al-shirazi Al-firuzabadi born , February or April 1329, Kazerun, Iran died Jan. 13, 1415, Zabid, Yemen lexicographer who compiled an extensive dictionary of Arabic that, in its digest form, Al-Qamus (The Ocean), served as the basis of later European dictionaries of Arabic. After teaching in Jerusalem (134959), al-Firuzabadi 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-Firuzabadi 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-Qamus extract of this work at Calcutta, at skdar (Scutari, opposite Istanbul), and at Cairo.