Culture & Heritage

  (Reuters) – Office receptionist Sheikha's 2005 wedding was an extravagant 700-guest affair at one of Oman's top luxury hotels. Besides spending 38,000 rials on the celebration, her groom also paid a 9,000-rial dowry, bought a new apartment for the couple and spent several thousand on their honeymoon. "I was married like a princess and within three years abandoned like …

It needs no gainsaying that Turkey is a rich land with a long history. Not only did it once form the Byzantine Empire, the most powerful and influential Christian power in the world in the few centuries after Christ, but it was also home to a number of Greek communities that produced brilliant scholars such as Herodotus, not to mention …

  I am privileged to write the commemorative article on late Dr. A. M. A. Azeez to mark his 37th death anniversary on 24th November, 2010. This article is a way of expressing my gratitude to this outstanding Sri Lankan who made a difference to the quality of life of so many of his fellow countrymen, especially the underprivileged minority …

Yesterday marked the start of the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Press Agency said that a record number of Muslims were expected to make the Hajj this year – over 3.4 million anticipated over the five days of the pilgrimage. One of the pillars of Islamic faith, the Hajj must be carried out at …

  Omar Ibn Said spent much of his life as a slave on a Bladen County plantation, but some claimed he was reared as a Muslim prince in Africa. The deeply religious man lived a life of celebrity, the subject of national newspaper and magazine stories despite his lowly status in the antebellum South. Said (who last name also is …