Al-BAB

Impressions of a Middle East - Past and Present

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Yezidis

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The Yezidis are a non-Muslim ethnic minority group, concentrated in the Kurdish regions of Northern Iraq, Western Iran, Eastern Syria, so...
Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Saudi Vignettes

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A trip to the antiques market yielded another unexpected find last week. There, I came across a book entitled Saudi Arabia: An Artist's ...
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Ancient Olive Trees of Bechealeh

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Lebanon is famous for its biblical cedars. But there are also ancient olive trees in the country that rival the cedars in age and beauty. ...
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Saturday, August 6, 2011

'The Baptized Sultan'

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Most people are aware of the impact of Islamic Spain on the European history. The role of Andalusian philosophers, mystics, and translators...
Saturday, July 9, 2011

Islamic Art Across the Ages

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The following are examples of Islamic art stretching across ten centuries, and ranging from Central Asia to the Maghreb. They are found in ...
Monday, July 4, 2011

The Haji Omran Road

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T he Haji Omran Road, also known as the “Hamilton Road”, is a little-known rural highway in Northern Iraq that cuts through some of the most...
Sunday, June 19, 2011

Ibn Maimoun (Maimonides) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

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In the tenth century, the city of Cordoba was the New York and Paris of its time, the centre of cultural activity, with over seventy librari...
Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Sheikh Ali

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For conservative Egyptians, this bar, located on a side-road off Saad Zaghloul Street in Alexandria, adds a certain insult to injury with it...
Saturday, May 28, 2011

Old World New Mind

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In 1989, two renowned American academics, psychologist Robert Ornstein and biologist Paul Ehrlich, wrote a book called “New World New Mind: ...
Monday, May 23, 2011

Jibril Rajoub

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They say that birds are descended from dinosaurs. It may be that some humans have also undergone such transformations. Jibril Rajoub, once s...
Friday, May 13, 2011

Restaurant Varouj

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The most interesting Middle East Institutions are often those that fly far below the radar of the masses. A purely word-of-mouth establishme...
Friday, April 22, 2011

Mujib Nature Reserve

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Overshadowed by the heavily trafficked tourist sites of Petra and Wadi Rum, is one of Jordan’s least known treasures. Ninety kilometers sout...
Friday, April 8, 2011

The Beauty of Reform

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A reality that is easily forgotten about each of the three monotheistic faiths of the Middle East is that they were each once a profound att...
Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul

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In his book, S cience of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul: The Pertinence of Islamic Cosmology in the Modern World , William C. Chittick has ...
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John and John
John Bell and John Zada are two Canadians of Middle East origin who have had a lifelong fascination with the Middle East. A diplomat and a writer respectively, they have both spent more than two decades living and working throughout the region in various capacities. Here they pool their knowledge, insights, and experiences to generate and enliven new perspectives on the region, and project new ideas regarding human development as related to the Middle East and beyond.
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