Once an important center of Indian Ocean trade, then a perfumed and lovely French-owned backwater, the Comoro Islands face a promising—though hardly an easy—future, building an independent economy on cloves, vanilla and tourism.

Exhibiting the work of artists with roots in countries across the Arab world, a house on a hill in Amman has become a showcase of contemporary art, where new talent earns crucial exposure and inquisitive visitors face new challenges.

Fifty years ago, Martin Tytell found a simple way to make a typewriter print from right to left, and began converting English-language machines to Arabic. Now he has a worldwide clientele, and customizes typewriters in more than 100 languages.

Music first drew Paul Bowles to Morocco, where he gained notoriety as a novelist. But in 1959, he recorded traditional Moroccan music and compiled a diverse collection that today more than ever, inspires Western musicians—and audiences.

Gotong royong, mutual assistance for the common good, is one of the rules for living in Malaysia. It's how footpaths are cleared, bridges repaired, and—in rural areas and newly founded villages—how the first local mosque is built.

The inaugural running of the Dubai World Cup marked the completion of a historic journey for the thoroughbred, from its ancestral Arabia to the racecourses of the West, and now back to pound the newest tracks in the Arabian Peninsula.