the Hans Wehr

See that green book on the table? That is the bad boy right there. The "honz vair", the veritable sine qua non of Arabic study for Anglophones... The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic.

I've owned mine for about a year and a half, now, but it's only been in the past couple of months that I've proceeded far enough with my study of Arabic for it to be really useful to me. But I know that I'm going to be turning to it again and again. By this time next year, I think it's going to be seriously dog-eared.

There are two disappointments with which every beginning Anglophone student of Arabic must deal. One is that there is no really comprehensive English-to-Arabic dictionary in existence. The other is that you have to learn the art of reducing Arabic words to their triliteral roots before you can even reliably look up words in your Hans Wehr. That is to say, the first letter of the word you're trying to find is often not the letter you'll find it listed under in the 1300-page green monster.

But learning to surpass those two obstacles makes you feel like you're a member of some kind of exclusive language-nerd club. Which brings me back to the photo.

The photo is from the website of the Qasid Institute for Classical Arabic in Amman, Jordan, and they know. They know what an icon that green cover is. It's not in the picture by accident. That's a killer website they have, for Islam-o-nerds like myself. It's like porn to me, really. Qasid is the siren that calls me to the Middle East...