Al-Azhar, Cairo's resplendent mosque—and the world's oldest university—recently celebrated a thousand years of service to Islamic education.

This fall a graceful new 4,900-foot suspension bridge will open to traffic across the Bos­porus, linking Europe to the Middle East and fulfilling a dream 3,000 years old.

To celebrate its 100th anniversary. International College in Lebanon moved to a splendid new hilltop campus—and looked ahead critically at its second century.

In the 7th and 8th centuries, Damascus was not merely the seat of the Islamic caliphate, but also capital of an empire greater than Rome's.

About 500 years ago, an Arab in Ethiopia stumbled onto the drink that may have altered history—and will certainly be part of it.

Early in the 16th century, doctors, administrators and jurists opened a great debate over a controversial new beverage. A hundred years later it was still raging.