Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri is among the Arab world's most distinguished historians of ideas, perhaps best known for his gargantuan Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism. To be launched by May 2008, the English edition of his autobiography -- to appear with Awakening (London-Los Angeles) -- spans the widest range of topics from Judaism to an Easterner's experience of the West. Originally written in Arabic, this is the latest chapter to have been added to the book

By Mursi Saad El-Din