A very numerous group among the texts included in early
prints is represented by prefaces. Usually, participants in
and eyewitnesses of the printing process tell about the emergence of a particular
printing house, mention the details of the work accompanying the publication of
the book (e.g., translation of the text or its revision based on the original), list the
names of participants in the printing process, give instructions to the readers on
using the book, etc. The study of the constituent elements of the first books printed by the Arab
Christians makes it possible to trace the process of their editorial activity, the
formation of book design, the development of structural and content features of
prefaces and afterwords, their style and genre and the language peculiarities of a
certain epoch and environment. All this makes these texts important objects for a
separate study covering various aspects of them.