The text excerpts are accompanied by grammatical and lexical commentaries supplemented where
necessary by notes pointing to historical cultural and religious background information. The
notes are conceived as a pedagogical tool for students in their third semester of Arabic or
above. Elements of native Arabic grammatical theory and issues in comparative Semitic
linguistics are introduced where appropriate. Throughout the chrestomathy students will find
copious references to Wolfdietrich Fischer s Grammatik des Klassischen Arabisch (viz. Jonathan
Rodgers English translation) and William Wright s A Grammar of the Arabic Language. Following a
suggestion by August Fischer three lexicographical and three geographical textual specimens
have been added to the text corpus. The glossary is modernised in both content and style. The
principal editions of the text excerpts are indicated and interesting textual variants are
noted. Important annotated translations where available are mentioned as well.
