There are a number of dictionaries of Arabic philosophical terms in European languages, and although many readers of the Bulletin may not be fluent Italian readers, this one is certainly worthy of attention. It covers the main terms one would expect, provides the Arabic along with a transliteration, and includes just enough material to be useful and not so much as to be unwieldy. The references are helpful, and this would indeed be a useful book to have when dealing with Arabic philosophical material.

One of the entertaining tasks of any reviewer of a dictionary is looking for omissions, and there are indeed some surprising gaps. It is always difficult to know how firmly to separate philosophy, theology and law in Islam, since they interact so extensively, and there are plenty of theological and legal terms included here, and that of course makes one wonder why others were omitted. For example, there is ḥadīth qudsī, but no other category of ḥadīth, apart from the general term of course. There is no khums, a frequent concept in Shia literature, no riba or gharar, and a really significant omission, no maqāsid as in maqāsid al-sharī ʿa, although there is certainly plenty on sharī ʿa itself. The idea of the law having basic principles is certainly often raised by philosophers, as is the theory that only God can tell who is a believer or otherwise, yet there is no irja in the dictionary. There is no luṭf, and very surprising, no mawt, yet plenty of Islamic philosophers write about death and it is hardly a minor philosophical topic. There are many ʿulūm in the entry on ʿilm but no ʿilm al-tasawwūf. Derivatives are not always mentioned, there is kawn, for instance, but no kun. There is no nuṭfa and no islah. Naw‘ comes after nazarī, something wrong there.

These cavils aside, this has to be acknowledged to be a very worthwhile book and it surely ought to be translated into other languages, English in particular. It would be very useful for anyone working with philosophical texts without a good grasp of the technical vocabulary. Each technical term is transliterated and then followed by the Arabic and the meaning; and for the more significant terms a reference or two to literature on it. These explanations are clear and point the reader in the appropriate directions. The reference material provided here is helpful and would guide the reader onto the straight path (yes, the term is in the book) to wider knowledge. Although this is only a dizionarietto and not a dizionario it is both a rich source of information and a stimulating read.