The Intellectual Struggle in Syrian Literature is a systematic study of Arabic literature in general and Syrian literature in particular. Written in eight fortnightly instalments in the Argentine-based al-Zawba’a newspaper from 15 August 1942 until 1 December 1942, the book was first published in Buenos Aires in December 1942, two weeks after the last instalment was published, and reprinted in the Lebanon in June 1947, about three months after Sa’adeh’s return from exile.
The Intellectual Struggle in Syrian Literature represents the crowning point of a long and deep concern for the state of Syrian literature that had long been troubling Sa’adeh but which the complexities of politics and life in general had prevented him from addressing.