E.W. Lane

Few Western students of the Arab world are as well known as the 19th-century British scholar Edward William Lane (1801-76). During his long career, Lane produced a number of highly influential works: An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Moern Egyptians (1836), his translation of The Thousand and One Nights (1839-41), Selections from the Kuran (1843), and the Arabic-English Lexicon (1863-93). The Arabic-English Lexicon remains a pre-eminent work of its kind, and Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians is still a basic text for both Arab and Western students. Yet one of Lane's most important works was never published. This was his book-length manuscript, Description of Egypt. Son of Dr Theophilus Lane, prebendary of Hereford, born In 1801, educated at Bath and Hereford grammar schools.