Photo Essays

Few other bands can look back on such a diverse musical culture as the Moroccan group "Master Musicians of Joujouka" – not least due to their musical co-operations with western rock and jazz greats since the 1960s. A photo essay by Arian Fariborz

In Mauritania, northwestern Africa, slavery is a fact of modern life. It's estimated that 10-20 percent of the country's 3.5 million people are still enslaved in a system rooted in ethnic discrimination.

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.

Raden Saleh spent many years - the "best of his life" - in Germany. In the mid-19th century, the Javan artist became one of the founders of German Orientalism.

In 2011 demonstrators gathered at Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest against the old regime signalling the start of the Arab Spring in Egypt. A few weeks later the Mubarak regime was ousted and there was hope that Egypt was on a path to change. Today, one year into Mohammed Morsi's presidency, the protests continue at Tahrir Square - against the president and the ruling Muslim Brotherhood party. By Andreas Stahl

The "Arab Spring" has led to a revision of our picture of the Arab woman: they've been on the streets, playing an active role in the protests, demonstrating their strong commitment to democracy, human rights and rights for women – and that has surprised and impressed many onlookers. But now that the dictators have been overthrown and new political structures are in the process of being created, many fear that women will once more be pushed out of the public space. But their courageous stand in favour of justice has shown: women are by no means the weaker sex. Arab women won't give up, and they plan to carry their revolution into the future.

A year after Libya's revolution and the death of leader Moammar Gadhafi the country is still struggling in its transition to a democratic and just society. Remembering cultural traditions may help the process. Impressions by Gaia Anderson and Sabine Hartert

What is ancient Italian glass doing in the southern Arabian desert, how did Roman hair fashion look under date palms, and why were ancient Egyptian art styles found beside West Iranian ceramics at Arabian caravan stations? The exhibition "Roads of Arabia", currently on show in Berlin, Germany, presents spectacular artefacts from prehistory and early history, as well as from ancient Saudi Arabia: This pre-Islamic archaeological heritage, long blanketed by sandstorms and eradicated from the collective memory of the "motherland of Islam", has been the subject of research by Saudi universities, in cooperation with international colleagues. Qantara.de presents some of the most unique exhibits in this slide show.

These days, mosques in Germany are as diverse as the Muslim communities they represent. There are those that reflect the architectural tradition of classical Ottoman mosque design, but Germany has in the meantime also become home to several modern and innovative mosques such as those in Penzberg or the Cologne district of Ehrenfeld. Every year on October 3, the mosques operate an open-door policy for interested visitors. But in actual fact, it's possible to visit a mosque at any time.