Yale University
Arabic - English Glossary
Designed to accompany Focus on Contemporary Arabic by Shukri Abed, this document provides 41 pages of Arabic terms with English translations. The words are organized alphabetically in Arabic and include notations that indicate colloquial...
Travel Document Systems
Tds: Azerbaijan: Culture
The culture of Azerbaijan is a blend of Islamic and European traditions. Read about the country's music, literature, architecture, and textiles from this information from the U.S. State Dept. Background Notes.
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Turks
Ethnically, the Turks are a cultural group united by a common language, but the term "Turk" has no clearly defined racial significance; it can be properly applied to those communities historically and linguistically connected to the...
Islami City
Islami city.com: Islamic History in Arabia and Middle East
Read about the scholarship and culture in the Golden Age of Islam.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Medieval Sourcebook: Baghdad
Fordham University gives a detailed description of Baghdad as the intellectual center of the Arab and later Islam culture. Gives details of important cultural and intellectual figures in Baghdad's history.
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Zarma Settlements, Kinship
The Zarma are the second-largest ethnic group in the Niger Republic, in West Africa, and they have close cultural affinities with the Songhay. Zarma villages are typically nucleated settlements made up of round mud or thatched dwellings...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Zaramo
"Wazaramo" is the preferred name for the people who live in the coastal area of Tanzania, in the vicinity of the capital city, Dar es Salaam. "Wazaramo" refers to the ethnic group, "Mzaramo" to an individual, and "Kizaramo" to the...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Druze
The Druze are a closed, tightly knit, Arab minority who live in southern Syria, in the mountains of central Lebanon, and in Israel, including the Golan Heights. There are also small communities in Jordan, the United States, Canada, and...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Palestinians
Palestinians inhabit an area east of the Mediterranean Sea and south of Lebanon. The Jordan River, Lakes Huleh and Tiberias, and the Dead Sea separate Palestine from Jordan. Christians refer to Palestine as "the Holy Land." Today...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Fali
The Fali belong to the vast paleonegritic group of people who are sometimes designated "Kirdi" (pagans), as opposed to the Islamized Peul or Fulbe, with whom they share the northern part of Cameroon. The Fali are farmers and...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Mossi
The Mossi are the most prominent ethnic group in the modern nation of Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta). They are also well known in the anthropological literature as a society with an especially high rate of labor migration to...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Mande
"Mande" is a term that has been used to identify the culture that embraces the western third of Africa's great northern savanna and coastal forests. The Mali Empire was the source of the Mande diaspora; therefore, in a broad sense,...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Yemenis
The Yemenis are a Muslim and Arabic-speaking people who are mainly Arabs, although a small percentage of the population has African and Asian ancestry. Yemeni values have traditionally relied on a hierarchical, tribally organized, and...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Arabs
The Arab world is usually considered to be comprised of the following nineteen countries: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Chad, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Tuareg
The Tuareg, a seminomadic, Islamic people who speak a Berber language, Tamacheq, live in the contemporary nation-states of Niger, Mali, Algeria, and Libya. They are believed to be descendants of the North African Berbers and to have...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Syriacs
Syriac is a branch of the Aramaic family of languages and was the lingua franca of the eastern Roman Empire at the beginning of the Christian era. It is also spoken extensively in the regions farther east. It became the language of...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Peripatetics of Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey
The data concerning Afghanistan and Iran refer to the period prior to the Saur and Islamic revolutions, respectively. It is not known whether such communities still exist in these two countries. Each existing community is primarily...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Jews of Kurdistan
Kurdish Jews, a largely rural people, have lived in the mountains and plains of Kurdistan since time immemorial. They have been geographically isolated throughout much of their history and are thought to have retained some old Jewish...
BBC
Bbc: Islam
This elaborate site details the history of Islam, and includes a beginner's guide to the religion, a prayer calculator, views of mosques, and an explanation of pilgrimages to Mecca. Further information on Islamic customs, worship, books,...
ArtLex
Art Lex: Islam and Islamic Art
A dictionary entry for Islam and Islamic art with numerous illustrations of representative works in all media, including architecture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles, and manuscripts. Includes useful cross-references to related terms and...
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Islamic Art: Early Islamic Period: History
An excellent introduction to the earliest period of Islamic art (approximately A.D. 700 to A.D. 1000) that includes a historical overview of the rise of Islam. With informative descriptions and wonderful reproductions of art from the...
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Islamic Art: Late Medieval Period: History
A solid introduction to Islamic art of the late medieval period (approximately A.D. 1250 to A.D. 1450) that relates historical events to the art production of the time. With informative descriptions and wonderful reproductions that...
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles Co. Museum of Art: Islamic Art Now: Contemporary Art of Middle East
In recent years, the parameters of Islamic art (particularly as defined by museums, commercial art galleries, and private collections) have expanded to include contemporary works by artists from or with roots in the Middle East. These...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Jews, Arabic Speaking Settlements
Throughout their history, the vast majority of Jews have lived in large cities and market towns. They lived in neighborhoods that were largely Jewish, but in most cities they had neighbors who adhered to other religions. Preference was...