The aim of this book is to demonstrate the movement of Greek thought into Arabic via the Syriac language. Al-Hamad devotes the four sections of this book to profiling four different authors who either wrote in Syriac or whose works were transmitted into Arabic via Syriac translations: Porphyry, John Philoponos ('the Grammarian'), Jacob of Edessa and Dionysios of Tellmahre.

Discusses the contribution of the areas of al-Raqqa (Kallinikos) and Diyar Mudar to translation into the Arabic language; the importance of Christian monasteries in the region of the Jazira for the history of translation of Greek receives special emphasis.