Abu Mazen: Popular name of new Palestinian prime minister; Western media also uses his formal name, Mahmoud Abbas.

Ahmed Chalabi: Longtime leader of the influential opposition group the Iraqi National Congress; considered a candidate to lead a new Iraqi government.

Mapping Out the Peace Process Pan-Arab socialist party founded in Damascus in 1941. The party has held power in Syria since 1963, and ruled Iraq from 1968 until the fall of Saddam Hussein in March 2003.

Camp David (II): Location for President Clinton-led peace talks between Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in July 2000. Talks ultimately failed, as negotiators could not bridge disputes over sovereignty of Jerusalem and the status of Palestinian refugees.

Dr. Assad: Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria. A trained ophthalmologist, he is the son of former president Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for three decades.

Dominique de Villepin: French foreign minister and spokesman for France during the UN debate over war in Iraq.

Empty Quarter: Common name in the West for the vast desert that includes parts of Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates; known in Arabic as the Rub' al Khali.

Force 17: Formed in the early 1970s as a personal security apparatus for Yasser Arafat and other PLO leaders. Israel has accused Force 17 of engaging in attacks on Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Infitada: Uprising of Palestinian residents of Gaza and the West Bank that began in December 1987. By 1991, clashes between demonstrators and the Israeli Defense Forces had resulted in hundreds of deaths.

Kanan Makiya: Prominent intellectual and leader of the Iraqi ex-pat community; Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University and founding director of The Iraq Foundation, an organization that promotes democracy and human rights in Iraq.

Maghreb: Arabic name for North Africa; Usually refers to Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Nebuchadnezzar: Ancient ruler of Babylon. Empire included present-day Iraq. His forces razed Jerusalem in 587 B.C.

Oslo: September 1993 peace accords signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Leader Yasser Arafat. Settlement called for Palestinian recognition of Israel's right to exist and Israeli acceptance of Palestinian partial self-rule.

Quartet: Name for the diplomatic unit - the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations - that negotiated the "road map."

Road map: Document promulgated by the Quartet to steer peace process in the Middle East; goal is a two-state solution to the conflict, including an internationally recognized Palestinian state by 2005.

Saladin: Muslim warrior and sultan of Egypt who captured Jerusalem from Christian armies in 1187.

Second Infitada: Current Palestinian uprising that began on September 28, 2000, its genesis commonly attributed to then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the disputed Temple Mount, as it's known to Jews, or Al-Harem al-Sharif mosque complex, as it's known to Palestinians.

Shia (Shiite): Branch of Islam whose adherents account for almost 10 percent of Muslims worldwide and, with close to 90 percent of the population, form the ruling majority in Iran.

Sunni: Branch of Islam whose adherents account for 85 percent of the world's one billion Muslims. In Iraq, Sunni Muslims account for nearly one-third of the population and have historically formed the ruling minority.

Taba: Site on Egyptian/Israeli border of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in January 2001. Negotiations nearly produced a settlement - in a joint statement the parties announced that "they have never been closer to reaching an agreement" - before faltering on eve of Israeli elections that installed Ariel Sharon as prime minister.

Wahhabi: Strict, austere branch of Sunni Islam; dominant faith in Saudi Arabia.

Zionist: Proponent of the idea that Palestine is the true Jewish homeland and symbol for Judaism.

- Justin Gerdes, Editorial Intern