Turmeric-tinted rice cooked in coconut milk, red-snapper curry, chicken grilled in chile paste, duck sate.... The inventive, delicious cuisine of this nation of islands is an endless exploration. And if you don't like blackened fruit bat, there is much more to try.

From her studio at the foot of Istanbul's Galata Tower, artist and textile scholar Belkis Balpinar is leading the familiar flat-weave kilim—since the Middle Ages one of western Asia's most traditional woven art forms—in bold new directions; her designs are winning international acclaim.

Arab countries from Morocco to Bahrain are modernizing their stock exchanges and revising their market rules to encourage domestic and foreign investment, speed national development and broaden their roles in international finance. Investors around the world are paying attention.

Arab history and literature, current news and commentary, entertainment, performance and even therapy—all fall in the domain of the hakawati, the storyteller of the neighborhood coffee house. But times are changing, and in Syria, there is only one left.

Indigenous styles along with architectural influences from the east and north make the mosques of Côte d'Ivoire a unique mix of types. Some are built of earth and wood, some of concrete and glass; some accommodate hundreds, and some a single family.