In the Yoyogi district of Tokyo, Japan, stands the ornate Camii Mosque, in a location where there is a blend of cultures—educating locals and creating a harmony among traditions. Islam’s history in Japan is almost entirely recent, with estimates putting the number of Muslims in Japan close to 200,000 amid a national population of 125 million. “The point is to help people acquire the power of interpretation, the intellectual muscles of critical thinking and critical understanding of this world,” says Qayyim Naoki Yamamoto, professor of Islamic studies at Marmara University.

With origins from Europe’s Thirty Years’ War, the Gotha Research Library features more than 1 million objects and manuscripts—including 800 years of Islamicate scholarship and the collection of 19th-century German physician Ulrich Jasper Seetzen.

Using as its base either calico or other stiff cotton cloth, the kummah is a link to the region's past as well as a personal statement for the present.

Reaching out to new generations and global audiences, musicians in India's northwest state of Rajasthan draw on centuries of traditions that, to an untrained ear, may sound like Indian classical music. But what sets them apart are the regional stories they tell and the tone and power of the singers.

With more than 150 published works, Eland Publishing reflects a worldly eclecticism, from reprints and re-releases of biographies to letters and even comic novels. The London based publishing house has for 40 years brought new life to travel writing.

As the Mediterranean Sea's largest and most central island, Sicily has lured invaders, traders and travelers since antiquity, and each one has left its layers of legacy. From the ninth to the 12th century, Arabs and Normans dominated the island. Along its western coast, in its capital Palermo, the Arab-Norman royal court of King Roger I rose to become one of the most influential seats of power of its time. Since 2015 the UN has recognized a set of nine buildings whose syntheses of Byzantine, Arab and Norman designs epitomize the best of a time whose multiculturalism remains a foundation for Palermo today.

Strength, speed and a lustrous coat made the Karabakh horse a symbol of status, power and beauty in its native Azerbaijan, and beyond. Wars over the past century nearly eliminated them, but now breeders are steadily restoring their numbers.

I took this photo during a rainy day in November 2018 from the window of my family home in Fayoum, Egypt, located about 100 kilometers southwest of the capital. It hardly rains but a few times in the year in most parts of Egypt, and when it does, it is always something special, bringing Joy and happiness particularly for the local children.

Little explored for tourism and not a popular destination even among locals, this section of the Tien Shan mountains, some 360 kilometers east of Bishkek, Kyrgystan’s capital, lies near the border with China.