In his twenties, John Constable, the great English landscape painter, fell in love with a woman called Maria Bicknell whom he had known since she was the age of twelve. They exchanged letters that…

China’s expulsion of more than a dozen American journalists is being heralded as another step towarda new Cold War. Chinese officials are crowing about sovereignty; the expulsions, by their telling,…

This may well be the single most important book on Europe’s global influence to appear in a decade. Many believe that Europe’s international standing is declining in a world…

On February 15, 2020, Hezbollah organized a ceremony to unveil a statue of Qassem Soleimani in the Lebanese town of Maroun al-Ras, roughly half a mile from the border with Israel. The statue…

What’s in a Name? The name “Majalla” literally means “magazine” in Arabic. Some might wonder why our publication has such a simplistic name. When plans for the…

This month Majalla is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The magazine was founded on February 16, 1980, by publishers Hisham and Muhammad Ali Hafez and it quickly became one of the most important and…

In the evolving world of journalism, newly appointed editors-in-chief like to take on the role of a revolutionary leader. After filtering the comrades one by one, they eliminate secret agents,…

When the Brexit fever was at its height, and the words ‘febrile’ and ‘torrid’ seemed to be on every pundit’s lips, along with ‘free movement,’ ‘cake and eat it’ and the godawful ‘Brexit’ itself, I…

The mysteries of the ancient Egyptians are huge, but the key to understanding the life, culture and belief systems of the ancient civilization under its strong rulers is in front of us—in its…

The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society.Binyamin Appelbaum. Little, Brown, 2019. 448pp. Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American…