cover image THE ESSENTIAL MIDDLE EAST: A Comprehensive Guide

THE ESSENTIAL MIDDLE EAST: A Comprehensive Guide

Dilip Hiro, . . Carroll & Graf, $17.95 (400pp) ISBN 978-0-7867-1269-4

While he weighed in last year with War Without End: The Rise of Islamist Terrorism and the Global Response, in 1996 Hiro published this huge encyclopedic dictionary, here "revised, updated, and expanded," covering everything from aal ("Arab families or clans of distinction") and "Abbas, Mahmud" to "Zawahiri, Ayman" and "Zionist Congresses." (Sept.)