Born in Tunis, North Africa, in the fourteenth century, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406 CE) has been lauded as the discoverer of the true scope and nature of history, as the founder of sociology, and as one of the greatest historians of all time.

A Muslim Andalusian philosopher, physician and polymath [1], he possessed a broad knowledge of philosophy, theology, Maliki law, astronomy, geography, mathematics, medicine, physics, psychology and science.

Ibn Sina was a significant Persian Muslim philosopher and physician.

The great cities of the Islamic world form a chain reaching from northern India to the Andalusian region in modern Spain, encompassing Marrakech, Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad along the way.

From a long history of invasion and a crucial position on the East/West trade routes emerged a city fit for kings - its name derives from Cimes-quinte, literally ‘great town'.

Ali Nizami is a key figure in Persian literature and widely renowned as the region's best romantic epic poet.

The digits 0-9 that we use today have been developed from a system known as 'Arabic-Hindu numerals,' so named because of their development through a number of different Middle Eastern and Indian systems of language.

Arabs first landed in the Iberian Peninsula in what is now Spain in 710, shortly before the Umayyad caliphate was overthrown by the Abbasid dynasty in 750. At the time the area was ruled by the Visigoths, an East Germanic tribe.

Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum in loving memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Construction of the Taj Mahal started in 1631 and took 22 years to complete. It was built entirely out of white marble, which was brought from all over India and south-east Asia.

Baghdad was the intellectual centre of the world, a city bejewelled with rich bazaars, sumptuous gardens and libraries, brimming with knowledge and open for all.

The word Ramadan originates from the Arabic root ‘ar-ramad' or ‘ramida', which means scorching heat or scarcity of rations. Ramadan is the holy month of fasting as ordained by the Quran for all Muslims who have reached puberty and who are able to keep it, and it is the fourth pillar of Islam.

Explore the historical and theological origins of the Sunni-Shi’a divide.

Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature

Famous for his dedication to love and tolerance, the Persian religious scholar and poet Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi is remembered on a worldwide scale as one of the most articulate and moving advocates for respect and cooperation across religious, national, and other borders.

Mahmoud Darwish, a celebrated Palestinian poet, used his powerful and emotive works to connect a global Palestinian community through themes of exile, identity, and longing for homeland, becoming a symbol of the Palestinian cause and earning international recognition for his literary contributions.