The 3-volume Urdu-English Dictionary being compiled for the last quarter century has finally been published by its compiler Yakoob Miran Mujtahedi. A monumental work, the Dictionary has over 900,000 entries and provides their meanings and alternatives in English. Its publication was sponsored by Syed Hashim Memorial Foundation, Hyderabad.
Mr Mujtahedi spent a sizeable part of his life compiling the dictionary as the last comprehensive work of this genre was done by Dr Abdul Huq 70 years ago. Three other prominent Urdu-to-English dictionaries were compiled by John Shakespeare, Duncan Forbes and SW Fallon, and they were over 150 years old. While on one hand they had become respositories of hundreds of obsolete words, lack of updating had rendered them irrelevant when it came to thousands of words being added to Human knowledge every day. Other works of recent origin were too limited in their purpose and left a lot to be desired. All along there had been no attempt at periodically updating them.
Mujtahedi’s Dictionary is spread over 2,812 pages and carries several new features. It provides root words of all entries, derivatives, connotation, usage, related idioms, examples from poetry and subtle nuances of the meanings of the words. It also carries several words of Deccani (South Indian dialect of Urdu) and words from other languages such as Hindi, English, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Greek etc which find use among Urdu knowing folk. Urdu entries have also been spelt out in Roman letters in order that those familiar with phonetics could get to the meanings in English. Usage whether it is colloquial, archaic, poetic, common, folk etc have also been indicated. Phrases and proverbs emanating from a particular word too have been provided. For instance, the entry dil (heart) carries 600 derivatives and phrases. Similarly, aankh (eye) has over 350 entries.
For Mujtahedi, who retired as the Deputy Director at the Directorate of Translations under the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the idea of compiling an Urdu-English dictionary emerged as a necessity. A growing corpus of words and terms and unrestricted flow of terms from English and other Indian languages necessitated Urdu equivalents. This set him on undertaking the lifetime mission. In the beginning he would write every single Urdu word and its meaning in English on a card. The cards began to occupy trays which soon filled up several shelves in his small house. Passion for work made Mujtahedi name his house ‘Lughat Ghar’ or ‘Dictionary House’ in Chanchalguda in the older parts of the City of Hyderabad.
Mujtahedi says the printing of the Dictionary could be possible with the sponsorship from Mr Syed Abdul Qadir Jeelani, Chairman, Syed Hashim Memorial Foundation Hyderabad. The Chicago University is putting the Urdu-English Dictionary on its website. The Dictionary would also be available in electronic form on a compact disc shortly.
More information can be had from Dr Yakoob Miran Mujtahedi, Dictionary House, 16-3-807, Chanchalguda, Hyderabad-500024, Phone: 040-24577172. email: mujtahedisdictionary@yahoo.co.in
