Despite being nearly a century old, the book Historical Topography of Ancient and Medieval Syria, by the French archeologist and orientalist Rene Dussaud, continues to be a seminal work in its field. Its Arabic translation will be no less important since it brings Dussaud's writings to a wider Arab readership. Dussaud's work represents a European Orientalist perspective on the history of the region and its problematics. It is this perspective and similar ones that helped draw up policies and borders, and helped create entities the impacts of which continue to plague the region. Published just after the First World War, the book marks an important rupture in the history of the Levant and the Arab world, with the collapse of the last Islamic Caliphate, and European dominance of the region. The book explores the geography, history, and archeology of sites, towns, castles, and villages, and the peoples who lived or passed through the region, from the most ancient periods of the Assyrians, Akkadians, Arameans, Greeks, and Romans, continuing through the appearance of Islam and the region becoming Muslim, up to the Crusades. By means of archeology, the accounts of historians and travelers, and documentary records, the French archeologist follows ancient routes and uses them to trace the military campaigns and the routes they followed, the sites and towns they passed through and the battles fought.