Mati Alon was born and raised in Haifa, Palestine (Eretz Israel). Living in this city with a substantial Arab population, the author learned the Arabic language and customs thus enabling him to write the authoritative study in his books. Mati Alon was a soldier during the Israeli War of Independence, in 1948. He later graduated from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) with B.S., M.S. and P.E. degrees in Mechanical Engineering. Alon taught at the Technion, then moved to the United States, where he worked as a Mechanical Engineer at the University of Illinois Medical Center, in Chicago...