TE Lawrence is celebrated for his role in the Arab Revolt, but his legend obscures secret agreements and British imperial ambitions that shaped modern West Asia and left enduring consequences
Control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait will potentially give Tehran leverage over two critical chokepoints as Iran and the Houthis threaten Saudi Arabia, global oil supplies, and international trade, expose Saudi Arabia’s military vulnerabilities, and undermine Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious Vision 2030
A succession dispute has spotlighted the Tata Group over a century and a half after Jamsetji Tata pioneered Indian capitalism, embraced Swadeshi on his own terms, and built a business with international connections and enduring influence, on the back of a global cotton trade crisis
The works of great Indian mathematicians Aryabhata and Brahmagupta and the highly efficient Indian numeral system were introduced to Baghdad, the capital of the Abbāsid Caliphate, in the eighth century, marking a cross-civilisational knowledge exchange that shaped modern mathematics
In the summer of 1916, Parsi industrialist Sir Dinshaw Petit invited Mohammad Ali Jinnah, then a prominent barrister and rising political
Muslims deeply influenced the language, architecture, and philosophy of Spain and Portugal through centuries of forgotten exchanges, shaping the Iberian identity and challenging long-standing historical narratives that frame Christian-Muslim relations solely through the lens of conflict
Uzbekistan’s Center for Islamic Civilization in Tashkent brings together centuries of Islamic heritage, scholarship, science, and culture, showcasing historic exhibits and the achievements of figures such as Babur, Al-Biruni, Al-Khwarizmi, Avicenna, and Alfraganus
Anusha Rizvi’s JioHotstar film The Great Shamsuddin Family offers an intimate, unexoticised portrait of ordinary Muslim life, a rarity in Indian cinema, set amid family banter, work, relationships, fear and uncertainty, exploring identity, vulnerability and resilience without reducing its characters to stereotypes
Muslim thinkers and leaders have reinterpreted Prophet Muhammad’s seventh-century Medina Charter from Indonesia to Malaysia, Morocco, Turkey, and Sudan, seeking peaceful coexistence, human dignity, and a more inclusive Muslim world based on a vision of pluralism, justice, religious freedom, and common citizenship
Britain’s imperial border-making, from Ireland and the Sykes-Picot settlement in West Asia to the Radcliffe Line in India, carved through communities and territories, disrupting longstanding social and economic ties, causing displacements, sectarian tensions and conflicts whose consequences continue to shape Ireland, West Asia and South Asia today
