The story of Jalal Kishk. Jalal Kishk was a struggling hard-core Marxist writer who lived in Beirut in the 1960s. He fled the Nasserist campaign of persecution of Egyptian communists. He settled in Beirut's At-Tariq Al-Jadidah neighborhood, not far from the old offices of Hawadith on Corniche Al-Mazra`ah. When Al-Hawadith magazine was enjoying its dramatic rise as the most widely read publication in the Arab world (Israeli Orientalists still think that Hawadith is still widely read--they always quote it although it is now read by four people if that) in the 1960s, its publisher, Salim Al-Lawzi, heard about this meticulous and most knowledgeable researcher, Jalal Kishk, who has created his own archives about Arab politics in his little aparatment. Kishk was hired as a roving Arab correspondent, and he quickly became a hit. He was prolific, and he knew about many things, and read widely, and wrote interesting articles. It did not hurt that he was so submissive to Lawzi. As Al-Hawadith continued to grow, and as Lawzi moved from dogmatic Nasserism to King Fahdism after the death of Nasser, Kishk moved along. He became a staunch defender of House of Saud and of Islamic fundamentalism. He moved to London. To underline his break with his communist past, he bought a Rolls Royce and hired a driver. He also made it a point that his uniformed driver rush to open the door for him at all time. Kishk is dead but I recommend his books. He was an interesting writer. That reminds me: Is Robert Fisk's driver, Abed, uniformed?