Written Arabic

There already exist a number Of manuals Of Arabic for English-speaking students, and it might well be thought that an addition to their number was hardly necessary. Teaching experience over some years, however, has suggested to me that there is a large and growing class of would-be students of Arabic for whom none of the existing works is well adapted: namely, those who aspire to a simple reading knowledge of present-day Arabic, as a tool for utilizing recent Arabic writings on their own particu- lar discipline, whether this may be e.g. sociology, history, economics etc.