With more than a dozen American universities opening branches and campuses on the Persian Gulf, the oil-rich emirates of the Arabian peninsula are threatening to dethrone cities like Cairo, Baghdad, and Beirut as the academic centers of the Middle East. Wealthy, safe, and relatively stable, these emirates are vying to become the new intellectual heart of the region, spending more than $20-billion on cultural and educational projects annually. Many Arab scholars, as well as American ones, are counting on their success. Myriad symposia, independent media, art shows, book fairs, film festivals, and other hallmarks of intellectual life are flourishing in these countries, transforming the coast of the Persian Gulf into what Daniel Balland, director general of Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, describes as "a modern-day Andalusia." Many of the gulf countries see the traditional centers of Arab education as past their prime, and are working towards propelling the region into the international spotlight--even at the expense of neighboring Arab countries--and dramatically changing the intellectual landscape of the Middle East.