author
Edward William Lane
1801–1876
Best known for bringing Arabic literature and Egyptian life to English readers, this 19th-century scholar combined close observation with years of language study. His books on Egypt, the Arabian Nights, and Arabic lexicography remained influential long after his lifetime.
2 Audiobooks
Arabian Society in the Middle Ages: Studies From The Thousand and One Nights
by Edward William Lane
An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians
by Edward William Lane
About the author
Born in Hereford in 1801, Edward William Lane became a British orientalist, translator, and lexicographer whose work introduced many English readers to Arabic language and culture. He spent significant time in Egypt, studying Arabic closely and observing everyday life with unusual care for a writer of his era.
He is especially remembered for Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, a vivid account of Egyptian society, as well as for his English translation of One Thousand and One Nights. He also produced Selections from the Kur-án and devoted many years to his monumental Arabic-English Lexicon, a major scholarly reference work.
Lane died in 1876, but his reputation endured through both his literary translations and his scholarly research. For readers today, he remains an important figure in the long history of writing that tried to interpret the Arabic-speaking world for an English-language audience.