Introduction

This introduction to the major practical realities of Standard Arabic, covering as far as possible both “Classical” and Modern styles, was first put together in the early 1960s. About that time I became obliged, by the growth of my University department and of my general administrative and teaching responsibilities, to hand over the arduous task of teaching Introductory Arabic to another colleague. It was felt desirable to maintain an exact standard of method and coverage which could be counted upon by all the other Toronto instructors teaching the Islamic languages or using Arabic in their “disciplinary” classes. During the last fifteen years or so the material, in xeroxed form, has not only been used regularly at the University of Toronto in this way, but also read and commented on by colleagues in the Arabic and related fields at Toronto and elsewhere. These commentators were generally favourable, most to the point of urging publication. The present version takes account of their criticisms as well, and of those made by the readers designated by the Cambridge University Press. The book makes no claim to have removed, or even to have fully elucidated, all the difficulties normally encountered in starting Arabic; nor to have provided the ultimate methodological tool which renders all earlier work redundant. In some respects it is quite traditional, in others “modern”, in yet others original and innovative.