This course presents the basic concepts in Arabic grammatical thinking in 8^th-10^th centuries CE, with a stress on the development of the ʿamal (grammatical government) theory. Topics such as subject and predicate in nominal and verbal sentences, passive sentences, direct object and “ʾinna and its sisters” will be discussed based on Sībawayhi (d. 796), al-Mubarrad (d. 899/900) and Ibn al-Sarrāj’s (d. 929) writings. The lessons are based on reading and discussing texts, and aim to provide the students with tools for understanding the medieval grammatical literature.