Serpent of the Nile traces the origins of Arabic dance, which survived despite religious disapproval and growing commercialism to evolve into a popular dance form across the globe. Focusing on the nineteenth century onwards, Wendu Buonaventura reveals how this ancient art was influenced by Western ideas about art and entertainment, and in turn exerted a powerful hold on the Western imagination. In the heyday of orientalism, it inspired writers and artists such as Flaubert, Jean-Léon Gérôme and Mata Hari. Often based on common fantasies of the women of the Middle East, this obssesion nevertheless produced wonderfully evocative images. Buonaventura also documents the impact the genre had on fashion, theater and film at the turn of the century, and explores present and future trends in Arabic dance.