Al-BAB

Karagashli Sumak, Kuba District, East Caucasus, 19th cent. (from collection of Robert Bell)

All text in this post copyright John Zada and John Bell 2008 Photo Courtesy of Studio Kerop, Cairo In order to accommodate the influx of tou...

All text in this post copyright John Zada and John Bell 2008 If there is anywhere that makes Lebanon unique, it is Wadi Qadisha. This gash i...

T he Palestine Youth Orchestra and the Collegium Musicum of the University of Bonn play in Ramallah, July 27- August 2, 2008. Conducted by M...

This medical manuscript is from Syria and comprises three medical works - the first two date from the 14th century and the third from the 16...

I am sick of idolaters and the temple. Khayyam, who said that there will be a hell? Who’s been to hell, who’s been to hea...

Mention to anyone in the Middle East that your family comes from a town in Turkey that was once a part of Syria, and is today located just n...

The coast has always attracted humans. They emerge from the adjacent hills and valleys to try their luck in the waters. This scene is repeat...

Mike Molloy is a former senior Canadian diplomat who has done a lot of good regarding the very sensitive issues of Palestinian refugees and ...

The Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar are currently touring Canada and the United States. For a list of concert venues, cl...

A view of Bozburun Bay as seen from the Dolphin Pension Hotel , Bozburun, Turkey. Photo in this post copyright John Zada and John Bell 2008

Camille Chamoun Blvd, New Roumieh Road, Broummana, Tel.: (04) 873900 http://www.mounirs.com

Photo copyright Tim Paul 2008 For years, efforts to resolve the Israel-Palestine problem, as well as other issues in the Middle East, have f...

Review : The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In , by Hugh Kennedy, 376 pages, Da Capo Press. "T...

Looking west over the village of al-Husn from the medieval crusader castle of Qalaat Husn , also known as Husn al-Akrad or Krak des Chevali...

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser with Libya's Muammar Ghadaffi and a member of the Libyan Revolutionary Council, in Cairo. The date...

During the American invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, I travelled as part of a documentary film crew aboard the USS Nimitz. The Americ...

Baghdad, Iraq Photo in this post copyright John Zada and John Bell 2008

For more than two centuries, archaeological excavations at cemeteries in Egypt dating back to Roman times have unearthed some unusual and po...

There are recent reports out of Israel that Hizballah is strengthening its positions in southern Lebanon by digging tunnels throughout the t...

69 Kasr el-Einy Street Garden City, Cairo Tel. 531 6111 A Cairo landmark, this fancy kebab house has been serving locals for over 50 years. ...

Review : Bitter Lemons , By Lawrence Durrell, Marlow and Company, 1957, 256 pp. In March 1953, author Lawrence Durrell, penning a letter to ...

Zubeir Pacha Street, Khartoum, Sudan Tel. +249 1 8377 2860 Fax. +249 1 8377 0898

A turn-of-the-century Egyptian postcard

In a concert hall down by the old port in Marseilles, a rabbi wearing a suit, Phillipe Darmon, walks on stage and launches into an unaccompa...

This is Rania Kharma. She is thirty four, attractive and intelligent. She has ambitions, bills to pay, and worries that preoccupy her. Sh...

All text and photos in this post copyright John Zada and John Bell 2008 “So, this is your first time with us!” exclaimed Abdulrahman al-Anes...

The view from the ascending 'Burj Dubai', in the UAE

All text and photos in this post copyright John Zada and John Bell 2008 In brackish Arabic laced with Farsi and Hindi, Captain Abdul-Fatah a...

Review: The Rise and Fall of Alexandria - Birthplace of the Modern World, by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid. Penguin Books, 300 pps. This b...

All text and photos in this post are copyright John Zada and John Bell 2008 “I have a wonderful idea for a novel,” wrote a clerk of the Brit...