Located between the Levantine and Arabian areas of the Middle East, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is bordered by no less than four other Arabic speaking countries: Syria to the north, Iraq along its northeastern panhandle, Saudi Arabia to the east and southeast, the Gulf of Aqaba, Jordan's only outlet to the sea, is to the south and Palestine to the west. At 96,188 sq....
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Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Islamic luxury glassware was the most sophisticated glass exported to both Europe and China after Islam overtook most of the traditional glass-producing territories of both the Sasanian and Roman Empires. In Pre-Islamic times, figurative decoration played a small part in the making of Arabic glass, so the change from Persian and Roman glassmaking was not abrupt, and as a...
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Childhood is a particularly important time for learning and there are many benefits to teaching your child another language. Studies conducted by Harvard determined that children who are bilingual are more creative, more flexible, more engaged in problem solving, and score better on tests. With that in mind, if you’re trying to figure out which language to add to your child’s repertoire, why not try...
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Sports have been around as long as the Middle East has been around. In fact, archaeologists have found wall carvings that depict wrestling scenes from the time of pharaohs. Arab sheikhs have flown their falcons across Arabian skies for hundreds of years while at the same time, Bedouins have raced their Arabian steeds across the desert sands. In the UAE, the still race their camels,...
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As you travel southeast out of Morocco’s Atlas mountains, you’ll find the climate getting very hot and dry. Looking at a Morocco map, you’ll understand why. It’s because this is where the deserts of Morocco begin. Quiet and scarcely populated, the desert seems to go on forever here. Set apart from the kingdom’s coastal cities by the Atlas Mountain range, the Moroccan deserts are vastly different...
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When you started learning Arabic, you probably didn’t think much about the long-term benefits of learning the language. Most likely, you were just happy that you’re able to ask where the bathroom is in Beirut or ask for directions to your business conference in Cairo. However, the benefits of being bilingual go far deeper than that, and today we’re going to discuss how you can...
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