This volume gives a short account of the background and life of Sibawayhi, the founder of Arabic grammar, his grammatical ideas as set forth in his book al-Kitab, and the fate and historical importance of his work. Sibawayhi's approach was that of a theoretical linguist, that is to say, he already had a concept of language before he began to apply induction to the mass of data to discover the organizing principles of Arabic.

He wrote the Kitab, the concepts of which are universal and relevant to this day. All examples are given in transliteration, and are translated, and technical terms and concepts have been glossed or explained as often as possible.