Grammar of the Arabic Language

Rating:
Summary: Solid Reference Grammar, but has Drawbacks
Review: First, anyone considering this book needs to understand that this is a reference grammar, not a textbook for learning Arabic. The material is arranged by parts of speech and by grammatical concepts, not as a series of lessons going from simple to more complicated. There are no exercises and no excerpts for reading practice (although all discussions of grammar and semantics are illustrated by examples). The level of the book is not for beginners.

The main drawback is a level of unneeded complexity that is maintained in many sections of the book by the use of Latin grammatical terms and by trying to look at Arabic through the concepts of English grammar. The chapters on Syntax are especially notable for this. It is there that we find such gems of clarity
as :

If two *correlative* clauses follow the
hypothetical particles law (if), law 'anna
(if that), lawlaa, lawmaa and lawlam (if not), [*]
the verbs in both clauses have usually the
significance of our pluperfect subjunctive
or potential, though occasionally too of our
imperfect subjunctive or potential.

This is further "clarified" by the footnote:

[*] The protasis of a sentence, when introduced
by lawlaa, although it may not have a verb
actually expressed, yet includes a verbal idea,
viz. that of the verb kaana.

This creates the impression that Arabic hypothetical sentences are super-complex, and their meanings are difficult to grasp. In fact, there is nothing particularly hard about the sentences used to illustrate this discussion, and most of the difficulty comes from trying to arrange English and Arabic into parallel structures. I find it hard to recommend the Syntax section of the book, which has pages upon pages of such explanations. But many other parts (such as the discussion of the forms of the verb) are lucid and helpful, probably because there aren't any English parallels to get in the way.

I also find that the fonts and the typesetting are not great. Looking at the pages for a long time fatigues the eyes.

I feel that I must mention that the price ... seems unreasonably high to me.

In summary, the book is good, but make sure that this is what you want.