'The book represents an introduction to the theory of abelian varieties with a view to arithmetic. The aim is to introduce some of the basics of the theory as well as some recent arithmetic applications to graduate students and researchers in other fields. The first part contains proofs of the Abel-Jacobi theorem, Riemann's relations and the Lefschetz theorem on projective embeddings over the complex numbers in the spirit of S. Lang's book ""Introduction to Algebraic and Abelian Functions"". Then the Jacobians of Fermat curves as well as some modular curves are discussed. Finally, as an application, Faltings' proof of the Mordell conjecture and its intermediate steps, the Tate conjecture and the Shafarevich conjecture, are sketched' - H. Lange for ""MathSciNet"".