A series of new polyamides has been prepared from new monomers containing 6,6'-oxy or 6,6'-carbonyl diquinoline units with Various aromatic diamines by the phosphorylation route. The polymers, having inherent viscosity in the range 0.29-1.04 dl g(-1), were obtained in quantitative yield, had excellent thermal stability as shown by 10% weight loss temperatures in nitrogen and air (above 435 and 420 degreesC, respectively) and high glass transition temperatures (in the range of 230-310 degreesC). Some of them were semicrystalline. The polymers were characterised by elemental and infrared analysis and GPC. The solubility in N-methylpirrolidinone was very good for all polymers. The properties of these polymers are compared with those of corresponding polyamides having only one quinoline ring per repeat unit and with those of some other polymers reported in literature. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.