This book is a lavishly illustrated celebration of female dancers in the Arab world and their influence on the West. It traces the origins, history, and development of this ancient art, which has survived despite commercialism and religious disapproval. The book explores how Arabic dance was influenced by Western ideas and, in turn, how it exerted a powerful influence on the Western imagination during the era of “Orientalism,” affecting writers and artists like Flaubert and Jean-Leon Gerome