A Concise Grammar of the Arabic Language (1861)

compendious introduction to Arabic Grammar for the use of English students, is a serious impediment to the acquisition of the language. For those who desire to pursue their studies into elaborate detail, nothing better than De Sacy’s Oram/maire Arabe can be desired, It is full of research, is accurate and comprehensive. Its very size, however, renders it a tedious book for beginners, and it appeared to me possible to compress into a short manual the main principles of the language. The distinction between the Vulgar and the Written Arabic ia not more than the distinction between the speech of a ploughboy and the essay of a philosopher ; I have not thought it necessary, with some authors, to treat them as separate objects of study. In the preparation of the present work I have availed myself largely of the labours of preceding writers, and gladly acknowledge my especial obligations to De Sacy, (of whose book Stewart’s is a poor abridgment,) to Caspari, and to the Grammar of the American Missionaries published in Arabic at Beyrout for the use of Arab boys.
That I might have the advice of native philologists. I visited Cairo for the third time last winter, and …