This collection of articles sheds some more light on the research effort and activity of the Institute for Modern Near Eastern Studies of the University of Amsterdam and presents these to a greater public. The main accent lies on the Modern Middle East with contributions in Sayyid Qutb and the Muslim Brothers, Modern Egyptian Historical Writing, the relation between Modern Islam, Media and Women, the political visions of Yaqub Sannu, penal law in 19th century Egypt, agricultural change in Mount Lebanon in the 18th century, diglossia in Egypt and problems in the phonology of Cairene Arabic. More traditionally-inclined orientalist subjects are represented by a contribution on the Protocol of the First lawi Sultans' Letters from Morocco to the States General - of particular interest to Dutch readers, by a discussion of part of a Chronicle dealing with the Almohads from a Leiden manuscript and by a contribution dealing with figures of speech according to the concept of the Andalusian Hebrew-Arabic poet, Moses ibn Ezra.The Volume is of interest to Arabists, historians and linguists.