The present work is a comprehensive reference grammar of literary Arabic as it is written today. It discusses all the morphological and syntactical aspects of the language, beginning with basic elements such as the alphabet, the vowel signs, nouns, adjectives and verbs, and proceeding to more complex structures such as conditional sentences, relative clauses, adverbials and so on.

Since the Reference Grammar has been written primarily with students of Arabic in mind, it approaches its subject matter in a way which is thought to be the most accessible for the language learner. Thus all Arabic words are fully vocalised to show the use of the cases, moods and certain orthographic features, and the arrangement of entries is systematic and fully referenced.

A notable and important feature of the Reference Grammar is the many examples (some 12,000) which illustrate the various grammatical points and which have been chosen from a number of novels written during the last decade or so by leading Arab writers.

Dr. Ron Buckley first became interested in the Arabic language and the Arab/Muslim world during a series of journeys he made to Egypt and the Sudan in the 1970s. He subsequently went on to study Arabic and Islamic Studies at Exeter University in the United Kingdom, achieving a First Class BA Honours Degree and, in 1993, a PhD in Islamic History. Dr. Buckley has been teaching Arabic since 1990 and is currently a lecturer in Arabic at the University of Manchester, UK.