The main work of the famous specialist in Arabic studies is a large historical research based on the compositions of medieval Arabic scholars. The author spent fifteen years studying the topic. The work contains two parts: the ‘Research’ with analysis of the sources, and the evaluation of their credibility, there is also a description of 60 ‘events’ mentioned by Arabic authors; the second part, ‘Appendix’, gives historical references on those Arabic authors, and translation of texts about Palestine from the time of its conquer by Arabs up to the Crusades.
The work is not a well-structured description of the course of the history of Palestine; it is the history of its sources, and their description – they provide material on the reconstruction of events. The main significance of the work is in the translation of numerous Arabic sources into Russian, and in the vast bibliographic notes, and in the capital and thorough comparison of the texts.