This work is based on a quantitative analysis of a substantial corpus of the Arabic lexicon with a view to investigating lexical relationships within nine Semitic languages. The book is made up of six chapters: Chapter One offers a brief overview about Semitic comparative lexical studies, whereas Chapter two discusses the emergence of Qur'anic Arabic. Chapter Three presents the lexical data, with Qur'anic Arabic at the basis of a lexical mass comparison exercise involving Akkadian, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Ge'ez and Epigraphic South Arabian. This data is then discussed from the semantic point of view in Chapter Four. Chapter Five tackles the statistical data accruing from the lexical corpus, whereas Chapter Six offers the final observations and conclusions. This research does not aim to be an etymological dictionary of Qur'anic Arabic, nor does it attempt to suggest some new genetic classification of the Semitic languages. However, the lexical links identified in this study are in themselves linguistic indicators of the various degrees of cultural proximity characterizing the Semitic languages.
A Comparative Lexical Study of Qur'anic Arabic provides valuable research material to all those interested in Semitic studies in general or in any of the Semitic languages mentioned above in particular.