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Kitāb al-muhāwarah al-unsīyah fī al-lughatayn al-Inklīzīyah wa-al-ʿArabīyah … Arabic and English grammatical Exercises and familiar Dialogues chiefly intended for the Use of Students in the English Language.

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First edition, an English grammar and vocabulary designed for Arabic students, attributed to the Lebanese-born Shidyāq, who lived between Cairo and Malta in the 1820s–40s, and is best known for his well-regarded Arabic translation of the Bible (1857), and for his less well-regarded opinion that Shakespeare (‘Shaykh Zubayr’) was an Arab. On Malta he was director of the printing press used by American missionaries.

The dialogues (pp. 76–142) cover ‘writing and books’ (‘Can you lend me a piece of slate-pencil?’; ‘there are many private gentlemen who have very extensive libraries’), voyages (‘Is it customary to pay the mules’ hire beforehand?’) dining (‘This mutton is very tender’), ‘buying and selling’, going to bed (‘Do the mosquitoes not trouble you?’), and ‘the English Language’ (‘It is becoming quite an universal language …’), as well as ‘Inquiries concerning countries, climates, customs of people, &c.’, which includes a discussion of the Royal Asiatic Society and the expansion of its library. The dialogues are followed by an index of individual words found therein as well as a list of modes of address.