This volume consists of two parts. The first is a detailed study of grammars of Turkic written by Arab grammarians (11th-17th century AD), covering internal structure, phonetics, morphonology and syntax. It contains numerous quotations from both little-cited edited texts and unknown manuscripts. The analyses contribute to the study of the application of linguistic models to 'foreign' languages, and the Arabic model in particular.

The second part is an English translation of Kitāb al-’Idrāk Li-Lisān al-’Atrāk, a grammar of Mamlūk Qipčaq Turkic, written by the renowned 14th-century grammarian ’Abū ḥayyān Al-’Andalusī. The translation gives an excellent insight in Arabic linguistic reasoning applied to Turkic.