Middle East

A seventeenth century travelogue by a famous Sufi mystic describes a strange and surprising image of Ottoman Palestine

A look at the miraculous tales and sacred biographies of Muhammad, in honor of “Mawlid”

A mysterious 80 year old document which recently surfaced in our collections emphasizes the geopolitical significance of Bahrain. But what is it doing here?

A seventeenth-century Muslim intellectual’s staunch defense of smoking sheds light on the practice’s connection to modernity and the concept of recreation

How advanced mathematics were used for Islamic religious purposes in the Middle Ages

A look at the figure of Abraham the Patriarch in the Islamic tradition, with the help of manuscripts from the National Library of Israel’s Islam and Middle East Collection

Rumi, Ibn Arabi, and the radical Sufi conception of religion

These rare photos offer a glimpse of a monumental Ottoman project, designed to transport “hajj” pilgrims and unite a vast Islamic realm