The questions Ajami raises are likely to remain central; he is challenging some of the fundamental assumptions with which many Arab and Western students of Arab history and politics have worked in recent decades.- Itamar Rabinovich (New Republic) The Vanished Imam offers much more than a utilitarian account of recent developments in Lebanon. It takes the raw stuff of daily politics and turns it into a classic account of human achievement and strife. The details are localbut Mr. Ajami endows the story with a universal significance. His tale of the stranger who transforms a people and thenwhen his work is donereenacts its most sacred dramahas the literary power of a masterpiece.- Daniel Pipes (Wall Street Journal)