Firro (Middle Eastern history, U. of Haifa, Israel) investigates the emergence and development of Arab nationalism with a focus on its cultural aspects as manifested in language and ideology. He begins by tracing the usage of key terms such as umma (community), qawm (group), sha'b (group of people), and 'arab (Arabs) in classical texts from the rise of Islam until the era of 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). He then explores the emergence of new terms based on the classical texts with new meanings in the era of Arabism from the end of the 19th century until 1940. Finally, he presents case studies on four religious communities in Syria and Lebanon: the Maronite-Christians, Shi'is, 'Alawis, and Druze. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)