LANE, EDWARD WILLIAM ( English Arabic scholar, son of Dr. Theophilus Lane, prebendary of Here ford, was born on Sept. 17, 18o1. He was educated at. Bath and Hereford grammar schools. In 1825 he started for Egypt in search of health. There he spent three years, twice ascended the Nile, proceeding as far as the second cataract, and composed a complete description of Egypt, with a portfolio of i oi draw ings. He again visited Egypt in 1833-35, residing mainly in Cairo, but retiring to Luxor during the plague of 1835. Lane took up his residence in the Mohammedan quarter, and under the name of Mansur Effendi lived the life of an Egyptian scholar. His Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians appeared in 1836, and became a classic. The translation of the Arabian Nights, with notes and illustrations, designed to make the book a sort of encyclopaedia of Eastern manners, appeared between 1838 and 184o. In 184o Lane married a Greek lady. A useful volume of Selections from the Kur-an was published in 1843, but before it passed through the press Lane was again in Egypt, where he spent seven years (1842-49) collecting materials for a great. Arabic lexicon, which the munificence of Lord Prudhoe (after wards duke of Northumberland) enabled him to undertake. The
most important of the materials amassed during this sojourn was a copy in 24 thick quarto volumes of Sheikh Murtada's great lexicon, the Tclj el 'Ards, which, though itself a compilation, is so extensive and exact that it formed the main basis of Lane's sub sequent work.
Returning to England in 1849, Lane devoted the remaining 27 years of his life to digesting and translating his Arabic material in the form of a great thesaurus of the lexicographical knowledge of the Arabs. He worked at this Arabic-English Lexicon with un flagging diligence till a few days before his death at Worthing on Aug. To, 1876. Five parts appeared during his lifetime and three posthumous parts were afterwards edited from his papers by S. Lane-Poole. Lane's scholarship was recognized by many learned European societies. He was a member of the Ger man Oriental Society, a correspondent of the French Institute, etc. In 1863 he was awarded a small civil list pension, which was after his death continued to his widow.
A Memoir, by his grand-nephew, S. Lane-Poole, was prefixed to part vi. of the Lexicon. It was published separately in 1877.