Like children for centuries before, in his small Saudi Arabian village, Ahmed spent his youth steeped in traditional tribal culture, local legends, family ties, history, and tribal songs. But even as he grew up in the ancient culture, Ahmed also struggled to evolve with the modern society springing up around him. His story is at once a personal coming-of-age, a study of the coexistence of old and new, and a penetrating look at the religious, social, and intellectual forces at work inside the Arabian peninsula. The Belt is a memoir told with a poet's touch, bringing to life all the sensuous detail of traditional Saudi Arabia, and all the uneasy realities of the move into modernity.