Introduction -- The geography and demography of pre-Islamic Arabia -- Sources of the study of Arabic. Trust worthy data -- Grammarians and the dialects -- Pre-Islamic Arabic. The pre-Islamic linguistic situation -- Pre-Islamic dialects -- Signs of development in pre-Islamic Arabic -- The dual paradigm -- The case system -- Arabic after Islam and Diaspora. The influence of Islam and the conquests -- Arabicization -- The dialects -- Dialect division -- Classical Arabic. From pre-classical to classical -- The functional load of classical Arabic -- Conclusion.