The study of this treatise on ʔimālah (inclination), like the study of any part of the massive book by Sībawayh, poses challenges to readers, both native and non-native speakers of Arabic. The challenge for the native, in part, is because this work was the first systematic formalization of the grammar of the language, and in the process of creating it a whole new set of terms and a new paradigm of Arabic linguistics was introduced which was different from the traditional method, and more authentically descriptive. It was the beginning of the Arabic linguistic venture. Though this book captures the native intuitions about the language it poses an even greater challenge to non-native Arabic readers schooled in different traditions, who will encounter not only a new language but a new and different paradigm with its attendant conceptual framework. We consider the Arabic paradigm of doing linguistics not as a replica of the Western or of any other paradigm but as being with its own imagery and its own theoretical scaffolding.

The aim of this study is to overcome the obstacles and challenges posed by Sībawayh's treatise. There will surely be greater challenges to those who are not experts in Arabic than to those who are, but this work aims to make the study of Sībawayh as accessible to the non-experts as to experts in Arabic. This study, and in particular the translation, follows a ‘rich translation format’ by including the Arabic technical linguistic terms, in transcription, within the translation.