Entranced as much by its sound as by its centuries of history, in 2010 Rachel Beckles Willson started playing the `ud (oud), building enough skill to start performing on the instrument. She also became curious about its origins. 

Bhorta or bharta is a generic term used in Bengal to describe anything that has been ground, pounded or chopped into very small pieces. It is a side dish almost like a relish, which is commonly eaten with rice and lentils.

“In the Marshes of Iraq” — November/December 1966

Dozens of volunteers joined together in Houston, Texas, to construct a mudhif, a reed structure dating back 5,000 years to the Mesopotamian marshes of southern Iraq. To this day the hut serves as a town hall for Marsh Arabs to meet with their sheikh. In Houston, it also served as a meeting place—for some of the city’s 4,000 Iraqis and their fellow Houstonians to share insights into an ancient society and gain a sense of community.

After decades of decline under communist rule, food enthusiasts—including brother chef and baker Bledar and Nikolin Kola—are pioneering the return of the country’s traditional dishes. Chefs and other culinary aficionados are drawing on Albania’s 500-plus years of culinary heritage to reinterpret the foods of their ancestors. Their efforts are re-establishing traditions that were feared lost.

Rather than just telling travelers where to go, the guidebook Egypt: Inside Out by Trevor Naylor offers an inside-out perspective that evokes the experience of being there, inviting readers to embrace an almost meditative travel discipline of slowing down to take in the details and complexities of Egypt, moment by moment.

In 2024 AramcoWorld is marking 75 years of transcending cultural barriers. From its early days as an intra-company newsletter seeking to enrich understanding between employees in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and the original Aramco headquarters in New York, it evolved into a full-blown magazine focused on engaging external audiences around the globe. This first in a series of anniversary articles follows the timeline of a publication whose bridge-building mission continues.