Special Issue:  The World of Islam

This special issue of Aramco World Magazine was written by John Sabini and photographed by Peter Keen, both frequent contributors to the magazine who have a long-time acquaintance with the World of Islam.

Mr. Sabini, an American, has been involved with the Arab world for the past 28 years. He has lived and worked in Tunisia, Jerusalem. Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, and has traveled extensively in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Syria and Jordan as well as Turkey and Iran. He has published a book about Tunisia and is currently engaged in a study of the Western exploration of Arabia. He is interested in all the arts, particularly architecture and painting, and in archeology and ancient history.

Mr. Keen, a British Press Photographer Award winner, has been publishing his photographs of the Middle East and many other areas of the world in international books and magazines for nearly 25 years, serving at various times as chief photographer, director of photography and art director of such British publications as The Observer, The Sunday Times Colour Magazine and the Daily Telegraph Magazine. As a free-lance photographer he worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization locust control project and was the official photographer of Lebanon's Baalbek Festival in 1973.