Masarat introduces Arab scholars who have made distinguished contributions through their historical writings, and reveals their relationships with their subjects as well as the material, methodological and practical difficulties they encountered. This section also reflects on the extent to which these researchers have benefited from contemporary historiographical schools of thought and their openness to the other social sciences. In this edition, Ostour introduces its readers to Mahmoud Ismail, an Egyptian historian who uses his personal experience to illustration his involvement with Islamic history, particularly that of the Maghreb and the Islamic Andalus.