Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Preface by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani -- Foreword to 2nd edition by Seyyed Hossein Nasr -- Foreword by W. T. H. Jackson -- Preface -- Introduction -- Summary of book -- Language and calligraphy -- The Torah, the Gospel, and other scripture -- The Qurʹān -- Grammarians of al-Basṛah -- Grammarians of al-Kūfah -- Grammarians of both schools -- Historians and genealogists -- Government officials who wrote books -- Court companions, singers, and jesters -- Poets of pre-Islām and the Umayyad Period -- Poets of the ʹAbbāsid Period -- Muslim sects ; The Muʹtazulah -- The Shīʹah, Imāmīyah, and Zaydīyah -- The Mujbirah and al-Hashawīyah -- The Khawārij -- Ascetics -- Mālik ibn Anas -- Abū Hanīfah -- Al-Shāfiʹī -- Dāʹūd ibn ʹAlī -- Legal authorities of the Shīʹah ; The Ismāʹīlīyah -- Jurists depending upon the Hadīth -- Al-Tabarī -- Jurists of the Shurāt -- Philosophy ; The Greek philosophers, al-Kindī and other scholars -- Mathematics and astronomy -- Medicine: Greek and Islamic -- Story tellers and stories -- Exorcists, jugglers, and magicians -- Miscellaneous subjects and fables -- The Ṣābians, Manichaeans, Dayṣānīyah, Khurramīyah, Marcionites, and other sects -- Information about India, Indochina, and China -- Appendix -- Glossary.China -- Appendix -- Glossary.