This encyclopedia was designed as a step in the direction of filling this information gap. In it, the reader will find entries on the lives of more than three hundred contemporary individuals from modern North Africa and the Middle East, including Afghanistan, who are making their marks on all walks of life. A central purpose of this work is to show this broad region as a vibrant, diverse part of the globe, full of people doing things with their lives that are not all that different from what Westerners do with theirs.