The 11 papers comprising this book were prepared for a conference on Urban Planning and Urban Prospects in the Near East and North Africa held at Princeton University in 1970. Eight Euramericans and five Near Easterners, whose disciplines include history, sociology, demography, architecture, urban planning, and geography, offer their perceptions of Near East-North African madinas "traditional cities" and emerging metropolises. Each author argues that a better understanding of and a greater appreciation for the sociocultural aspects of traditional cities will contribute to the discovery of solutions to the many human problems confronting today's metropolises. -- From http://www.jstor.org (Dec. 1, 2016).