In his momentous dictionary Muḥaīṭ al-muaīṭ: qāmūs muṭawwal li-l-lugha al-ʿarabiyya (1870) [The All-encompassing Comprehensive: An Extended Dictionary of the Arabic Language], under the entry rawā (to narrate or tell a story), Buṭrus al-Bustānī surprisingly includes no reference to the neologism riwāya (novel) and its novel generic connotations, but adheres to the word's older references (basing his dictionary on Majd al-Dīn al-Fayrūzʾābādī's al-Qāmūs al-Muḥaīṭ). This seems surprising given al-Bustānī and his son Salīm's direct role in introducing and propagating the novel and story forms in Lebanon. Al-Bustānī translated The Pilgrim's Progress (1678; Arabic 1844) and Robinson Crusoe (1719; Arabic 1861), while Salīm took over the cultural journal al-Jinān (Gardens/Paradise) in Beirut, which published translations and original fiction, such as his al-Hiyām fī futūḥ al-shām (1870) (Love during the Conquest of Syria), considered a pioneering Arabic novel. Yet, under the entry rawā in al-Bustānī senior's Muḥaīṭ, we find: ‘rawā al- ḥadīth yarwīhi riwāyatan … ḥamaluhu wa naqaluhu … al-rāwī … ʿind al-muḥaddithīn nāqil al-ḥadīth bi-l-isnād … wa alladhī yarwī al-ḥadīth aw al-shiʿr yuqāl huwa riwāyat fulān’ (to narrate a story by telling it … carry it and copy/ transmit it … for the tradition transmitters the narrator is the one who copies/transmits the story through reference … and the narrative produced is the account of the one who told the story or poetry). In line with the tradition of ‘transferring’ stories in Arabic literature, al-Bustānī retains the original act of naql – to copy and transmit – significantly another name for translation.