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Portugal’s Enduring Love of Making Tiles
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History in Objects 12th-Century Glass Flask an Islamic Golden Age Masterpiece
History
Arts
Golden Vessel From the Islamic Golden Age Reflects Cross-cultural Connections‘Make It Your Own’: The Self-Belief Simmering in Noorjahan Bose’s Shemai Recipe
Food
A Bangladeshi dessert reflects hard-fought adaptability in life.FirstLook: Poetic Fusion
Arts
Prior to our modern practice of image manipulation with editing software, photographers worked more with planned intention and craft.Egyptology Today: A Conversation With Egyptian Archeologist Monica Hanna
History
Until recently, Egyptian archeological sites were filled with foreign archeologists excavating prized treasures from the country’s ancient past.Mundane to Magnificent: Yale Manuscript Exhibition Illuminates Muslim Knowledge
Arts
Manuscript exhibition reveals handwritten treasures spanning centuries and nations, in graying script and glorious technicolor, on ancient papyrus and gold-coated paper.How South Africa Came to Popularize Luxury Mohair Fabric Globally
Arts
South Africa is the world’s largest producer of mohair, a fabric used in fine clothing. The textile tradition dates to the arrival of Angora goats from the Ottoman Empire in the 1800s.Quick Summer Salad Recipe: Sea Beans With Fava Beans and Dill
Food
This recipe serves up one of London-based food writer Sally Butcher's favorite lunches—a perfect mezze dish of beans.Honoring the Life and Legacy of Tabla Master Zakir Hussain
Arts
While mastery of Indian musical traditions is one clear accomplishment, the late Zakir Hussain’s bold pursuit of his art across genres likely best defines his legacy.Portugal’s Enduring Love of Making Tiles
Arts
Tilemaking is arguably Portugal’s most identifiable artistic expression today. And it all goes back to a 15th-century king’s love of Moorish ceramic design.

Flavors
Flavors: Spicy Roasted Cauliflower (Zahra)
- Food
- Recipe
Ma’aleh is usually deep-fried cauliflower, served in a sandwich with raw vegetables and tarator.
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An Artist Threads Portugal's Multilayered Heritage
- Arts
For more than two decades Sara Domingos has produced a mixed-media collection infusing Portugal's Islamic heritage into her work. Her art is made of a variety of materials and methods, from acrylic and oil paints to embroidery and calcography, a form of artistic printmaking that in her case uses different forms of stamps. (Video by Tara Todras-Whitehill and Jack Zahora)
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Art of Islamic Patterns: A Southeast Asian Rosette Part 1
- Arts
This final installment in our series is based on the geometry of leaves and petals.
From Thailand to Malaysia and Indonesia, there is less focus on geometric, star rosettes like those found elsewhere in the Islamic world. Instead, designs here are generally cursive and vegetive. Many traditional houses feature window grills, brackets, architraves, doors and paneling intricately carved with floral biomorphic patterns, each one a formal, cohesive representation of forms and movements found in the surrounding jungle. The patterns have both practical and spiritual significance. Many utilitarian objects, too, from spoons to quail traps, are decorated and honored with these reverent designs.
Read the full story here.
Sepak Takraw's Kick in Minnesota
- Arts
Video by Jenn and Tim Gruber
Take the Malay word for kick and pair it with the Thai word for a hollow, woven ball and you have sepak takraw, the name of the acrobatic, lightning-fast Southeast Asian sport in which players use feet, legs, chest and head—no hands—to power a ball over a badminton-style net. (Think “kick volleyball.”) It’s been played across the region for more than three centuries, and recent decades have brought international agreements on rules that have led in turn to local and national leagues, tournaments in schools and capitals—all pushing sepak takraw onto an increasingly global sports stage from Malaysia to Minnesota. With more than two dozen countries now fielding national teams, the sport’s leading promoters have set their eyes on the Olympics.Weaving an oriental carpet tradition in Georgia
- Arts
In Georgia Borchalo rugs are making a tentative comeback amid growing recognition of the uniqueness of ethnic Azerbaijani weaving. There’s hope that this tradition can be saved. Video by Pearly Jacob and Robin Forestier-Walker
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Author's Corner Q&A
Lives in Clay: A Conversation with R. Neil Hewison
- Arts
He never planned on Egypt. Having learned Swahili while studying linguistics at York University, in his hometown of York, United Kingdom, R. Neil Hewison expected his first assignment with the international charity organization Voluntary Service Overseas would be in East Africa.
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