Photo Essays

) For centuries, Istanbul was not only the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but also its spiritual centre. Hundreds of tekkes (Sufi monasteries) on the Bosporus served as spiritual schools and places of assembly

Sufi shrines – the spiritual heart of Istanbul

Amidst the skyscrapers, tourist attractions and the hustle and bustle of the metropolis, Istanbul's Sufi shrines offer a world of calm and ...More

Live-in farm camps: far from the reach of basic services, thousands of Syria's poorest refugees take seasonal jobs at live-in farm camps, earning 30 Turkish lira (9.30 euros/$10.25 a day) - half the minimum wage in Turkey. While most workers come from rural areas in Syria, where nomadic farm labour is common, language barriers and their undocumented status leave them vulnerable to abuse

Turkey's farm camps - hard pickings for the refugees

Beyond Izmir's city limits, thousands of Syrian refugees work in agriculture camps, where they live far from health services and are ...More

Tsahal Square is where Jaffa Street, previously West Jerusalem′s main thoroughfare and today a traffic-calmed shopping promenade, meets the walls of the Old City and East Jerusalem. This is also the route of the controversial tram, inaugurated in 2001, which provides attractive urban flair

Annexing the Old City of Jerusalem

The Mamilla district on the outskirts of the Old City of Jerusalem offers an excellent example of how the Zionist dream of a united ...More

Welcoming victims of war: patients from the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other conflict zones in the Arab world are treated at the Hospital for Reconstructive Surgery in Amman, Jordan, opened in 2006 by international medical group Doctors without Borders. Treatment is free of charge for patients

House of healing

Doctors Without Borders' (MSF) hospital for reconstructive surgery in Amman is the final hope for many of those injured in conflicts in ...More

A photo of women in the Qajari era, taken by Antoin Sevruguin, Iran's leading photographer at the turn of the twentieth century

The women of Iran - 120 years ago

Antoin Sevruguin, the father of Iranian society photography, captured portraits of Iranian women in the early 20th century, from well- ...More

Syrian establishments: in Izmir's Basmane district, an area known for human trafficking operations, refugee-owned stores and restaurants have multiplied as more Syrians choose to stay in the city. Yet while refugees have made progress by opening such businesses, most still do so under the names of Turkish friends, said Mohamed Saleh, director for the Relief Society of Syrian Refugees in Izmir

Settling into life in Turkey - with help

A patchwork of aid groups and independent volunteers have assembled in Izmir, Turkey, to help refugees restart their lives. The port city ...More

1. The historic Qishleh clock on Saray Market in Baghdad: the clock tower was one of Baghdad’s landmarks for centuries. The clock at the top of a tower was built in 1868 by the Ottoman ruler Midhat Pasha at the heart of his seat of government and served as orientation for the local residents. These days the view of the tower is blocked by numerous tall buildings

Jewels of eternity – Baghdad’s endangered treasures

Blessed with a wealth of cultural treasures, the Iraqi capital Baghdad looks back on a unique history. Yet terror, war and state neglect ...More

Children in a balloon factory: Extreme poverty causes families to send their children to work, often in hazardous and low-wage jobs, such as brick-chipping, construction, waste-picking or even in a balloon factory. This balloon factory in Dhaka’s Kamrangi Char suburb employs many young people such as this 10 year-old child

Bangladesh child labourers: Victims of poverty, apathy and neglect

In Bangladesh around 4.5 million children are working under hazardous conditions. Some 1.7 million of them live and work in the capital, ...More

The relocation effort: independent volunteers have been helping Calais residents move their homes after French authorities called for a 100-metre buffer zone to be cleared around a highway adjacent to the camp. "We hope to let them keep their dignity and whatever self respect they still have after being stuck in this dump," said a volunteer who wanted to remain anonymous

Facing partial eviction, migrants scramble in Calais′ ″Jungle″

French officials have called for a buffer zone to be cleared between a road leading to the Eurotunnel and the ″Jungle″ refugee camp, ...More

Crumbling splendour: even today, Constantine sees relatively few visitors interested in the rich cultural heritage of the past. In 2013, fewer than one million tourists travelled to Algeria – not many in comparison to the ten million who went to Morocco or the nigh-on six million who visited Tunisia. The Grand Hotel Cirta in the centre of Constantine, built during the colonial era, has seen far better days

Constantine – Arabic Capital of Culture 2015

The Algerian city of Constantine still bears traces left behind by the Romans, Ottomans and the French. It has long been a centre of ...More

Multi-ethnic border town: Mardin nestles at the foot of Tur Abdin, "Mountain of Slaves" – in the southeast corner of Turkey and just a stone′s throw from the Syrian border. For centuries the town has been a melting pot of different cultures and religions. Muslims and Christians live peacefully side by side. In addition to Turkish, the townsfolk speak Arabic, Aramaic and Kurdish. This diversity has made Mardin a famous name – and not just in Turkey

Mardin - a town fighting for peace

One of the cradles of civilisation, with a centuries-old reputation for tolerance and multi-ethnicity, the Turkish town of Mardin is ...More

A cloth merchant sits in his stall in Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan)

Muslims of Central Asia by Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii ca. 1910

Between 1909 and 1912, photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii was commissioned to conduct a photographic survey of the Russian Empire by ...More

Unmarried and childless: Qaboos bin Said al-Said is an exception among the Arab heads of state. His reign as Sultan of Oman stretches back over more than forty years – longer than any of his neighbours in the Middle East. He celebrated both his 75th birthday and the 45th anniversary of his reign on 18 November

The Sultan of Oman: neither heir, nor spare

Many long-established Arab rulers were toppled during the Arab Spring in 2011. But not all of them: the Sultan of Oman has been head of ...More

Paris: sketching solidarity

On the heels of the terror attacks in Paris, a number of artists have been taking pen in hand to express their view of the events. One ...More

Istanbul and its "guests": almost 400,000 Syrian refugees live in the Turkish megalopolis in the meantime and it's estimated that there are just as many of them in Istanbul as in the whole of Europe. The refugees are considered to be "misafir", or guests - without rights to asylum or work

Stranded at the Bosphorus

In Istanbul, there are almost as many Syrian refugees as in whole Europe. Many of them feel stuck in the Turkish city, between the ...More

Though reputed for her difficult character, Zaha Hadid was brilliant. She made it to the top of a field dominated by men. She was the first woman to receive the equivalent of the Nobel Prize of architecture, the Pritzker Prize, in 2004, the highly prized Praemium Imperiale in 2009, and the Royal Gold Medal of British Architects in September 2015. Born in Baghdad, Hadid lived in London

Zaha Hadid - the visionary architect (31 October 1950 - 31 March, 2016)

For a long time Zaha Hadid's designs were considered impossible to build - until she proved the opposite. The Iraqi-born British national ...More

Slightly north of the High Dam, West Suheil is a Nubian village that was not submerged by flooding from the ever-rising reservoirs built by the state. Towns like this have become tourist destinations as a window into a ″pristine Nubian past″

Nubian women in post-revolution Egypt

The Nubians, inhabiting a 700 mile stretch of Nilotic villages between Egypt and Sudan since the days of the Pharaohs, have been around ...More

Rescue-ready: along with the Phoenix and the Argos, the "Dignity 1" makes up the rescue fleet MSF is running in the Mediterranean Sea throughout 2015. This 50-meter long vessel has brought aboard more than 5,000 people from the sea. Together, the three MSF ships have rescued 17,000 people. They operate in an area that stretches along an imaginary line 30 nautical miles off the coast of Libya

Search and rescue in a sea of refugees

Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) has been coming to the aid of sub-Saharan refugees trying to reach Europe from Libya by crossing the ...More

Indonesia's Communist witch-hunt

Between 1965 and 1966 millions of (alleged) Communists were hunted down, tortured and killed in Indonesia. The photographer Anne-Cecile ...More

Three brides from the Qashqai tribe, accompanied by Qashqai women in traditional dress

Traditional weddings in Iran

Iran is a country of many peoples with countless different tribes. Although weddings in the cities increasingly resemble those celebrated ...More

United in prayer: the Festival of Sacrifice marks the highpoint of the Muslim hajj – the pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims are expected to make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lifetime, but not everyone can afford to. That′s why celebrations are held around the globe, such as here in Nairobi, and prayers are said everywhere

The festival of Eid-ul-Adha - a time of prayer and celebration

Around the world some 1.5 billion Muslims are currently celebrating Islam's principal annual festival: Eid-ul-Adha, or the Festival of ...More

Tens of thousands of Yazidis have fled the terror group "Islamic State" in Iraq this past year. Nobody knows when they will be able to return to their home villages in the Sinjar Mountains. Like this boy in a refugee camp in Silopi near the Turkish-Iraqi border, they still face an uncertain future

Children on the run

Never before have so many boys and girls been fleeing war and poverty. In camps in Asia and Africa, or on the risky journey to Europe, ...More

A perilous trek - refugees journey from Syria to Germany

The distance from Syria to Germany is approximately 3,700 kilometres. For refugees fleeing the civil war the journey can take weeks, if ...More

Aiham Ehab Makyam, 21, and Gofran Hussein Mohammed, 22, arrived in Djibouti by boat from Aden in late May. Today, Djibouti is the only neighbouring country that is accepting refugees from Yemen. Crossing the Gulf of Aden is the only way to get there.

Yemeni refugees: destination Djibouti

When it comes to refugees, the focus of Western media in recent months has been on the desperate people trying to cross the Mediterranean ...More

This picture, taken in 1962, shows two female medicine students at the University of Kabul listening to their professor as they examine a plaster model of a human body part. At that time, women played an active role in Afghan society. They also had access to education and were able to take up work outside home.

Afghanistan's modern past

Many people associate Afghan women with the burqa, the garment that covers a woman's entire face, head and body and is worn in a number of ...More

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Most Recent Photo Essay

Machghara village in the Bekaa welcomes you with portraits of Iranian leaders and Hezbollah martyrs. For those unfamiliar with geopolitics, a quick glance at the billboards in the streets will reveal who Hezbollah′s friends are

Holidaying in Hezbolland

Since the outbreak of war in Syria, the entire Lebanese border has become a red zone: travellers from the West are advised by their governments to give it a wide berth. Yet once in the field, only the odd military checkpoint serves to remind travellers that tensions in the area remain high. In the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah – the Party of God – holds sway. Wielding considerable political, military and social clout, this powerful Shia Islamist organisation is government, parliament and welfare state rolled into one. By Eric Lafforgue

Qantara dossier: European travellers in the Orient

(photo: Max Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung im Hausarchiv des Bankhauses Sal. Oppenheim)

Our dossier contains a selection of interesting biographies and reports on renowned European travelers to the Orient from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.More

Top 10 books about Muslims and Islam by Saadia Faruqi


Media stereotypes and misinformation about Muslims are nothing new. In post-election America, Muslims are finding more allies who often want to help but don’t know much about Islam. More and more non-Muslims have questions and are seeking answers.More

An eye-catching tableau for resistance: graffiti art in Bethlehem

The trailblazer: in 2005, the legendary British street artist Banksy visited the West Bank and left behind nine stencilled graffiti images on the wall and on private buildings in and around Bethlehem. His satirical and critical commentary on Israel's occupation policy marked the start of an onslaught of international and Palestinian graffiti artists – amateurs and professionals alike – who have adorned the wall with their political and personal messages.

An eye-catching tableau for resistance: graffiti art in Bethlehem

In 2002, the then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved the construction of a barrier wall that would run along the ceasefire line of 1949 with the intention of separating Israeli territories from the Palestinian West Bank. In Bethlehem, graffiti artists have started using the wall as a canvas for political protest and socially critical art. By Laura Overmeyer

Female Kurdish singer rallies the troops

Kurdish singer Helly Luv (photo: Getty Images/Safin Hamed)

Iraqi Kurdish singer Helly Luv was in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, filming the video to her latest hit. Luv is aiming for international fame as she releases her new English song 'Revolution', calling for action against terrorism and violence.More

Syria's Cultural Heritage in Danger

Over four millennia, Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and Roman influences crossed paths in Syria. Today, precious cultural sites from these eras are being damaged as the Syrian civil war takes its toll on the country's cultural heritage. This week, the United Nation's cultural organization UNESCO made fresh reports about damage to Syria's historic sites.

Syria's Cultural Heritage in Danger

The civil war in Syria, which has taken the lives of thousands since 2011, is becoming increasingly brutal. Valuable cultural sites are also being destroyed in the fighting. UNESCO has now provided reports on the damage.

"The Crusades: Holy War"

Dr Thomas Asbridge (source: BBC.co.uk)

In this three-part documentary by BBC 2, Dr Thomas Asbridge presents a revelatory account of the Crusades, the 200-year war between Christians and Muslims for control of the Holy Land. More