The articles collected in this volume form a contribution to the study of Arabic linguistics. Most of them deal with Arabic medieval grammatical thought and terminology and are based on the oldest grammatical treatises known to us, especially Sībawayhi's al-Kitāb. The study of these two topics is interrelated, since the understanding of Arabic grammatical thought depends on the understanding of its terminology and vice versa.

Suliman Bashear (1947-1991) was born in the northern Israeli village of Mghar. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his B.A. (1971) and M.A. (1973). In 1976, he received his Ph.D. at the University of London for his dissertation "Communism in the Arab East," which was published both in Arabic and English.

This collection includes 15 critical and incisive studies by Bashear on various issues in the early Islamic tradition. One of the main themes running throughout these works is the gradual development of Islamic ritual and religious belief from within the historical context of Judaism and Christianity into a spiritual system seemingly rooted solely in the Hijaz. Bashear's studies consider not only the development of religious customs and beliefs, but also seek to explain how later generations recast the past in order to meet the needs of their own era.

In the “Introduction”, Lawrence I. Conrad highlights the major themes in Bashear's works and describes his unique and stormy academic career, cut short by his untimely death at the age of 44.

Pessah Shinar (1914-2013) was Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem. For more than forty years, Prof.Shinar has been engaged in the study of Islam in the Maghrib.The presentvolume includes sixteen articles dealing with the modern history of the region, itsreligion and civilization. In addition to other topics, the articles deal with the Muslimreform movements in the 20th century, with the personalities of ʿAbd al-Qādir and ʿAbd al-Krīm, with the Ṣūfī movement in the modern Maghrib, with Jewish-Muslimrelations, and with the significance of various colors in the North African Muslim and Jewish civilizations.