A book by Fouad Ajami, director of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a high-profile expert on relations between the Arab world and the West, was won in a three-day auction among five publishers by Stephen Morrow at the Free Press. His bid for world English rights to agent Jennifer Gates at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth beat out offers from Norton, HarperCollins, Riverhead and Random House. Ajami is also the author of the 1998 Dream Palace of the Arabs and a journalist who had the cover story in last week's New York Times Magazine on the roots of Arab terrorism. His untitled book will cover some of the same ground, and also offer a history of how the Arab world has viewed America during the past century. Publication is set for early in 2003.