The extravagant Hajj caravans of the sultans’ wives

Through extravagant processions led by palace women, the Mamluk state projected a message of power and prestige at home and abroad, turning the Hajj obligation into a soft-power tool

Yasmin Abdallah

Inside the Iron Lady

[caption id="attachment_55228931" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady"][/caption] No one walks quite like Margaret Thatcher. She scurries with her knees bent, the…

Nicholas Blincoe

Voice of the People

[caption id="attachment_55228839" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Muslim women in Cairo walk the streets"][/caption] Reporters are forever on the hunt for “real people” in their quest to…

Alastair Beach

The World Mourns Eve Arnold

[caption id="attachment_55228761" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Eve Arnold. 1912 - 2012"][/caption] The art world mourns an exceptional loss today as it is announced that world-renowned…

Amy Assad

Before Tahrir

The Road to Tahrir Square: Egypt and the United States from the Rise of Nasser to the Fall of Mubarak Lloyd C. Gardner The New Press 2011 The Road to Tahrir Square offers a condensed account of…

Noam Schimmel

The Fashion Architect

[caption id="attachment_552284" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="Osman Yousefzada (Alex Beattie)"][/caption] “I had quite a conservative upbringing, so I just went wild, before deciding I’d…

Juliet Highet

Merging Arab Voices

      [caption id="attachment_55227975" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="Emerging Arab Voices edited by Peter Clarke"][/caption]   Emerging Arab Voices offers highly original writing…

Noam Schimmel

The Energy Grail

The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World Daniel Yergin Allen Lane, 2011 The Quest by Daniel Yergin is a magisterial account of the complex evolution of energy…

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen