Make no mistake, driving in the Arab world is dangerous and accidents are endemic. It is unfortunate and it is true; the GCC has the worst p...

Today I'm posting a list of words whose roots come from Arabia and which at one stage are said to have been borrowed, or loaned from Ara...

Parking in the Building The manner in which the cars are parked makes for fascinating viewing and it is quite amazing to see just how clo...

It has been said, “Culture is like water and we are the fish. We don’t know what the water tastes like until we are moved to a different typ...

In the Gulf, cars are an easy way of working out how much money someone has, or makes. If you’re wealthy you'll drive a Mercedes Benz,...

Because it's so simple to learn to read and write the Arabic script I'll be posting a blog entry, every Saturday, until all the lett...

There is quite a lot of stuff happening with people's names, so I'll explain today's blog posting using typically representative...

Rose water [my warr-dH] has been around for centuries (it is known to have been used by the Romans) and is as it sounds; water with damask...

Image of the 99 names of Allah Taken from: flickr.com/photos/43046235@N00/122799318/ Islam, along with Christianity and Judaism are al...

The three little words used for defining the future are known as, inshala [in-shaa-lah], bukra [book-rrah] and malesh [maa-a-lesh] or altern...

Today I wanted to write something completely different and so am posting, 'The Ode to Tarafah', a pre-Islamic ‘hung’ poem (as in, ...

Muslims pray five times a day {see blog archive: the 5 pillars of Islam  } at dawn, midday, the middle of the afternoon, at sun set and a...

It seems Arabs tend to use their hands extensively when they communicate. Some of the emotions indicated by these hand movements are liste...

The Muhuarram Festival, c. 1795 Image taken from: www.columbia.edu Yesterday or today, depending on whether you’re Sunni or Shiite {see ...

photo taken from: www.flickr.com/photos/wazari/2709020340/ In general, and as an alternative to western norms, Arabs prefer a gentle hand...