In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Our master and guide, the holy, pure, and precious Father, the learned scholar, the king of scholars, the most excellent of the virtuous, the exemplar of the age, the unique one of his time and era, the pride of the people of merit and wisdom, the Maphrian a high-ranking ecclesiastical title in the Syriac Orthodox Church, supported by God, Mar Gregory Abu al-Faraj, son of the virtuous scholar Aaron the Physician of Melitene, may God cover him with His mercy.

A square decorative frame composed of small repeated floral/cross motifs enclosing the word 'Praise'.
Praise be to God, the First without beginning and the Last without end, possessor of the One Word and eternal unity, worshipped by the inhabitants of the worlds in the horizons, and prostrated to by the dwellers of the lower depths. Peace be upon His angels drawn near, and His prophets who guide to the obedience of God and His piety, and to walking in
sects

His paths and seeking His pleasure. And after this: This is a compendium on the dynasties. I have intended in
to narrate

its abridgment to limit it to some of what has been provided in its mention, to narrate one of
what has been provided in its mention

the benefits of encouragement and warning from the affairs of rulers and sages,
one of

relating it and spreading it by way of selection from the books written on this art in various languages, Syriac, Arabic, and others, beginning from the beginning of creation and ending at our own time. It is arranged into ten dynasties, the first of which God Almighty established among the nations, and they rotated it one after another.