Islam

This 1484 copy of Tuhfat al-Ahrar was produced during the lifetime of Jāmī, considered Iran's last great mystical poet.

The National Library of Israel Will Digitize 2,500 Rare Islamic Manuscripts

The cultural institution estimates that the process will take three years to complete

The 2,000-year-old subterranean system consists of a courtyard and two rooms.

Underground Chambers Discovered Near Jerusalem's Western Wall

Carved into bedrock, the mysterious rooms spent 1,400 years hidden beneath the mosaic floor of a Byzantine building

Worshippers, some of them wearing protective masks, take part in the Friday prayers at Mecca's Grand Mosque on March 6, 2020, a day after Saudi authorities emptied Islam's holiest site for sterilization.

This Pandemic Isn't the First Time the Hajj Has Been Disrupted for Muslims

Plague, war and politics have altered the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca throughout history

The rook in question certainly wasn't the first chess piece ever created, but it may be the oldest found to date.

Is This Chess Piece Unearthed in Jordan the World's Oldest?

The two-pronged rook, found in a seventh-century trading post, shows how quickly the game spread across the Islamic world

The Mustansiriya was built during the 13th century.

What the Restoration of Iraq’s Oldest University Says About the Nation's Future

The Mustansiriya has withstood centuries of war, floods and architectural butchery, but can it survive its own restoration?

Fear of Foreign Food May Have Led to the Death of This Crusader King

A new analysis shows France's Louis IX and much of his army suffered from advanced scurvy during the Eighth Crusade in Tunisia

Palestinians gather to perform the Friday prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem

A Small Fire Broke Out at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque as Flames Ravaged Notre-Dame

The blaze left the Islamic holy site largely untouched, damaging a single mobile guard booth

Dugger makes a stylish statement by superimposing vibrant images of women jumping and twirling over photographs of patterned mats common in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, the Veil Is a Fashion Statement

Artist Medina Dugger finds joy in a colorful yet complicated symbol of faith

A portait of Omar Ibn Said made around the 1850s

Only Surviving Arabic Slave Narrative Written in the United States Digitized by Library of Congress

Omar Ibn Said, a wealthy intellectual from West Africa, wrote about his capture and enslavement in America

Gentile de Fabriano’s gold-encrusted 1423 “Adoration of the Magi” altarpiece features Arabic script on the Virgin Mary’s and Saint Joseph’s haloes

Two Florence Museums Are Tracing the City's 500-Year Connection to Islamic Art

The Uffizi explores East-West interactions between the 15th and 17th centuries; the Bargello features donations from 19th- and 20th-century collectors

The Legendary Sultan Saladin Was Likely Killed by Typhoid

Reviewing historical accounts of his death, doctors and historians believe his sweating fits and weakness were brought on by the bacterial infection

Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” will usher in the return of cinema in Saudi Arabia

Movie Theaters Will Be Legal in Saudi Arabia Again After 35 Years

'Black Panther' will be the first movie to be screened to mark the reopening of the country's cinemas

Landmark Exhibition Takes You Inside the Exuberant, Diverse World of the Fatimid Dynasty

Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum brings together 87 pieces from collections across the globe

Tomb Door Engraved with Menorah Discovered in Israel

The artifact tells the story of the three major religious groups that have occupied Tiberias over the centuries

Monir in her studio in 1975

Inside the First Museum in Iran Devoted to a Female Artist

The new museum houses 50 works by the acclaimed artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

A Viking-age woven band of silk displays patterns in silver thread discovered to be Arabic script

Did Vikings Bury Their Dead in Clothing Bearing the Arabic Word for "Allah"?

While contact between Vikings and Muslim cultures is well documented, the interpretation of the 10th-century burial cloth has been called into question

The Lion of Al-lāt in 2010

Ancient Statue Damaged by ISIS Resurrected in Damascus

Palmyra's Lion of Al-lāt, as the statue is known, once adorned the temple of a pre-Islamic goddess

Shearith Torah

Why Religious Freedom and Diversity Flourished in Early America

Jam-packed exhibition features artifacts as diverse as Jefferson's Bible, a steeple bell cast by Paul Revere and a storied Torah

The ruins of the al-Nuri mosque

Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri Destroyed by ISIS Militants

The 12th-century mosque’s leaning minaret was one of Mosul’s most recognizable landmarks

Remains of Thriving Trade City Found in Ethiopia

The archaeological excavation at Harlaa suggests the region was a hub for Islamic communities in Africa

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