In Europe’s only country with a Muslim majority, Albanians are learning once again how to profess their faith openly, as they emerge from almost half a century of isolation and state-imposed atheism.

Iraqi-born chef Yahya Salih has created quite a stir in San Francisco: His two restaurants are celebrated for their magical, mouth-watering dishes combining the best of Mesopotamian and Californian cusine.

A single colorful, richly glazed tile in the hands of a gifted Alsatian artist-potter sparked a revival of centuries-old Islamic earthenware techniques and brought about a revolution in European ceramics.

Arabia was the door to Asia for the earliest humans migrating out of Africa, say archeologists. Tools from somesites in Saudi Arabia are more than a million years old.

The hajj, or pilgrimage to Makkah, a central duty of Islam whose origins date back to the Prophet Abraham, brings together Muslims of all races and tongues for one of life’s most moving spiritual experiences.

The French novelist, a romantic who claimed a "half-Arab soul," was enamored of the East. He sought to capture its essence in his exotic lifestyle and in the resplendent décor of the house in Rochefort where he had grown up.