Baghdad's only music school was destroyed in 2003. Any budding Iraqi musician who wants to learn an instrument has to use the Internet or find a teacher – neither of which is easy in Iraq. But a group of young musicians has not allowed itself to be deterred by such hurdles and has set up an orchestra, which they see as a symbol of peace. Gudrun Stegen reportsMore
The murdered theatre director and artist Juliano Mer-Khamis spent his life walking on a tightrope. A traitor to some, while a visionary to others – and an exception on the Israeli as well as the Palestinian side. An obituary by Stephanie DoetzerMore
Arabic was never easy. But if the language spoken by some 240 million people with its convoluted verb forms and guttural phonology suddenly starts appearing in Latin script, then things get really complicated. And at the same time very straightforward. Details from Mona SarkisMore
Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras, both world renowned specialists in early music, have produced an album that explores musical traditions from Jerusalem's various epochs: the Jewish, the Christian, the Arab and the Ottoman eras. Lewis Gropp introduces the intercultural musical projectMore
At the invitation of Sheikh Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, a number of eminent German and Arab intellectuals recently met for a "cultural dialogue". Hans Magnus Enzensberger was among their number, addressing in his speech the question of whether the Arab world needs a new Enlightenment. Loay Mudhoon spoke to the authorMore
Following the success of his "Mohammedan Temptations," prominent translator and publisher of Arab literature Stefan Weidner has now brought out a second prose volume with a literary account of a trip to Morocco. A review by Lewis GroppMore
Braving the bitter cold, Lebanese villagers have been patrolling a mountainside in the country's north, trying to protect trees from loggers who roll in under the cover of darkness, while refugees in the Bekaa valley have joined a seed bomb reforestation project
