An English Orientalist, one of the most accomplished men of his time; born at Hereford, Sept. 17, 1801; died at Worthing, Aug. 10, 1876. He published “Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians” (1836), and made one of the most famous translations of the “Arabian Nights” (1838–49). This work was the first translation of consequence into English which was made directly from the Arabic, all previous translations having been made through the French. It contained valuable illustrations and numerous scholarly and indispensable notes. The translations of Burton and Payne were subsequent to it. The world is indebted to him for many valuable works on Egypt, and especially for his “Arabic-English Lexicon” (1863–74), which cost him twenty years of unremitting labor. The succeeding parts came out from 1877 to 1889 under the editorship of S. Lane-Poole, the whole forming a dictionary indispensable to the student of Arabic.

Personal

  The world has lost an English scholar whom even Germany acknowledged to be the unapproachable master of his subject…. Mr. Lane’s private life was that of a learned man. He allowed nothing but the claims of affection to interfere with his work, but his few spare moments endeared him to his family and his friends. His influence in his own circle being that of a noble example was potent, and his sympathies were never narrowed by his almost ascetic life. Public affairs shared with the history of discovery of every kind his warmest interest. A lofty faith and a blameless life added from time to time to the dignity of his form and the nobility of his countenance, in spite of the constant ill-health with which he battled while he did his work. A delicate constitution, enfeebled by severe study, at length gave way, and, notwithstanding the constant, and most tender affection of his family, and the unremitting care of his medical adviser, a short illness ended the career of this great scholar.

  Lane’s third visit to Egypt was undertaken with the special object of preparing a lexicon of the Arabic language, of which his previous residence in Cairo had given him such a mastery that the very Ulema of the University of the Azhar were wont privately to seek his help in difficult questions of philology. He devoted the rest of his life to it, working from ten to twelve hours a day for nearly a third of a century.

General

  The especial and exceptional manner of this work [“Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians”] is in its careful and minute account of the social conditions and habits of the people of Egypt. Mr. McCoan, in his recent work on Egypt, assures us that the descriptions are admirable portrayals of Egyptian life at the present day.

  This was the first accurate version of the celebrated Arabic stories, and still remains the best translation for all but professed students. It is not complete, and the coarseness of the original is necessarily excised in work which was intended for the general public; but the eastern tone, which was lost in the earlier versions, based upon Galland’s French paraphrase, is faithfully reproduced, and the very stiffness of the style, not otherwise commendable, has been found to convey something of the impression of the Arabic. The work is enriched with copious notes, derived from the translator’s personal knowledge of Mohammedan life and his wide acquaintance with Arabic literature, and forms a sort of encyclopædia of Muslim customs and beliefs.