Focused Projects to Revive Arabic among masses
"Start from there
where the need is most!"
The Project Participants: Sponsor's Links
Translators' Profiles
Typing/Formatting/Proofing
The Projects (Higher Impact Projects Mentioned 1st)
Translation Projects to Translate Important Classical Arabic Texts into English, and Typing Projects to Type Important Texts for quick and easy search, research and study!
1. Translation Projects :
i. Translation of Roots of Lisaan ul Arab starting with ق ك ل م ن ه و ي actually used in The Qur'an
Lisaan ul Arab Introduction and free download options
Taaj ul 'Uroos Introduction and free download options
Status:
No classical Arabic to English Translators or Sponsors contacted me yet.
Approach must be focusing on that area where the need is most. Lane failed to complete his Lexicon on above 8 letter roots, and so most needed area is roots starting with these 8 letters. More important are those roots actually used in The Qur'an. So as a 1st translation project Translation of those roots of Lisaan ul Arab from roots starting with ق ك ل م ن ه و ي that have been actually used in The Qur'an. Taaj ul 'Uroos may also be chosen based on discussions with translators and sponsors. Lisaan ul Arab is preferred due to various reasons. 1 of these is that Lane said in preface page xxvii : "Frequently it happens that an explanation is essentially the same in the Lisan el 'Arab and the Taj el-'Aroos, but more full, or more clear, in the former" . See Translators' Profiles
Screenshot of Lisaan ul Arab: Right click and choose save linked content as/save link as/save target as to download the image and then see in full size.
Lane's Lexicon is a good Arabic English Lexicon, but its shortcoming i.e. incomplete work on roots starting with ق ك ل م ن ه و ي has to be supplemented via works like this and after this even some other good classical Arabic works can be translated, but again start from there where the need is most.
Requirements:
1. Good Classical Arabic to English Translators
2. Sponsors.
2. Typing Projects :
i. Howell Arabic Grammar and Wright's Arabic Grammar Typing Project
Download PDFs of both books to see the importance of both the books, visit below links for introduction to both books and links to download the PDFs for both in multiple formats:
Howel Arabic Grammar
Wright Arabic Grammar
Status: I have completed Abbreviations of Technical Terms. I have done few pages of Glossary of Technical Terms and few pages of combined Table of Contents. No volunteers or sponsors contacted me yet, and to launch this as a full project volunteers or sponsors were required. Focusing on starting from there where the need is most, and seeing my limited free time & no sponsors contacting me since last quarter of 2013, I have compiled Fast Howell Arabic Topics Locator, last updated 15 January 2014 and uploaded on this Online Folder.
Screenshot below:
This can fulfill some of the fast access and study requirements. Read below the details and options for completing Howell Arabic Grammar Typing Project & if you are interested you can contact me or another person Naveed ul Islam who also wants a searchable version & has an alternate plan.
Scope of my plan:
Type all 4758 (Howell Arabic Grammar) + 800 (Wright Arabic Grammar) pages of again, proofread them and format them, generate searchable pdf and make text available for other projects that can effectively utilize the text. Arabic text to be typed with harkaat and then without harkaat in brackets to have the text searched easily. All 7 books of Howell to be combined into 1 searchable document and both books of Wright to also be combined into 1 searchable document inshaALLAH! See the online folder containing the downloadable PDF and download it from there to see work done so far on it to have a closer look at what can be the benefits of such projects. See also
Typing/Formatting/Proofing service offer .
Screenshot of table of contents under construction: Right Click and choose Save Link As/Save Linked Content As/Save Target as to download and see in full size
Time:
If done full time dedicated, it will be completed in 1 year inshaALLAH from the date of starting.If done as a volunteer project, many volunteers will be required or many years will be required.
Sponsors and Volunteers:
Sponsors and Volunteers can initially contact me to discuss the details of project and how they can contribute. The sponsors will get a link to their site in same PDF as sponsors and amount of money they contributed towards the project will also be mentioned along with their link and brief description by them (a minimum amount for being eligible to be a sponsor will be set inshaALLAH). The free volunteers will also get link to their site and brief description (minimum number of original pages to be converted to this format for being eligible will be set inshaALLAH).
Alternate plan: Naveed ul Islam has an idea of 1st scanning Howell's Arabic Grammar using good OCR software and then correcting the text and formatting it. The idea for typing project came to my mind after knowing his idea for searchable text for Howell like he is doing already for Lane's Lexicon. The files extracts shown by him show very good extraction of English but Arabic and special characters will have to be typed again, also formatting will have to be improved further. In my opinion such output will have to be checked in detail and editing will be required. Only time gain at the cost of quality of formatting may be acquired by that method. If you are interested to sponsor his project instead visit his link above.
Benefit:
With Arabic Almanac and Baheth, vocabulary tools are there by which roots and words can be studied in detail in many books. But for comprehensive grammar books, to study a word or concept, a searchable document or tool is the best option in which Arabic and English can be searched and all on a particular concept can be studied quickly and in detail. Moreover, both the books are basically reference grammars and searching and studying a concept in both after quickly searching is best way.
Requirements:
Sponsors OR Volunteers