In 1258, the Mongol Empire unleashed one of the most devastating sieges in history, bringing down the heart of the Islamic ...

Created by an exceptional agreement between the governments of Abu Dhabi and France, Louvre Abu Dhabi was designed by Jean ...

PHOTO: ATLANTIC BOOKS In Song China, trade and cultural exchange drove technologies that Europe would not see for centuries. But when paranoia and conservatism took hold, progress ground to a halt.

The Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) in Abbasid Baghdad, deeply influenced by Persian scholarship, became the template for later European institutions.

By 4 a.m ., a breeze had begun to blow across the stadium near the center of Baghdad, but Qaid al-Sheikhli was still sweating ...

Spotting a rare foreigner in the southern Syrian city of Nawa, Khalil approaches with a business proposal: bring him a “very ...

HADID: Sir Raymond Keene is an international chess grandmaster and writer. He says during al-Shafi'i's time, elites of one of Islam's greatest empires - the Abbasids of Baghdad - were mad about chess.

A former chess coach says a member of the Taliban vice squad told him: "Playing chess is forbidden. Buying a chess set is forbidden. Even watching it — is forbidden." Why was the game banned?

Islamic. Islam has long had a vexed relationship with chess, although Muslims historically helped spread the game ...