R. Kevin Lacey is Associate Professor in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He earned his B.A. in government at Cornell University, and his M.A. in Middle Eastern studies and his Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University. His fields of specialization include Arabic literature, Arab-Islamic civilization, and cross-cultural encounters involving the West and the Arab-Islamic world. He has co-edited and contributed articles to Mirrors on the Maghrib and The Arab-African and Islamic Worlds: Interdis...