117 Fun Facts About Middle East

Which country is the largest in the Middle East by area?

Saudi Arabia fills most of the Arabian Peninsula, yet it hasn't a single permanent river, only dry wadis that run after rain.

Which three countries are the most populous in the Middle East?

Egypt, Iran and Turkey each hold well over 80 million people, and nearly all Egyptians live along the Nile, because the rest of the country is desert.

Which American naval strategist used the term 'Middle East' in a 1902 article?

Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that Britain's navy must hold the Persian Gulf to keep Russia out; The Times then took up his phrase in a long series of articles.

Mount Damavand, the highest peak in the Middle East, stands in which country?

Iran. Damavand's snowcapped cone last erupted about 7,300 years ago, yet fumaroles near its summit still let off volcanic gas.

Which three religions all originated in the Middle East and have their holiest sites there?

Judaism, Christianity and Islam all revere Abraham as a founding father, which is why the three are grouped together as the Abrahamic religions.

Which region spanning the Levant and Mesopotamia is nicknamed 'the cradle of civilization'?

The Fertile Crescent earned the nickname because settled farming, the first cities and the earliest writing all emerged along its well-watered arc.

Which sea separates the Arabian Peninsula from the coast of Africa?

The Red Sea fills a long rift in Earth's crust, opened where the block carrying Arabia split away from Africa.

Ancient Mesopotamia lay between which two rivers?

The Tigris and Euphrates. So little rain falls on their southern plain that reliable farming began there only once people dug canals to carry the rivers' water to the fields.

The lowest land on Earth is the shore of which body of water?

The Dead Sea. Its surface has fallen by tens of metres since the mid-20th century, largely because the river that feeds it has been heavily diverted upstream.

Which river is the Dead Sea's main tributary?

The Jordan River flows in from the north, but the lake has no outlet: water leaves only by evaporation and its salts stay behind, which is why it is far saltier than the ocean.

Which three territories border the Dead Sea?

Jordan, the West Bank and Israel ring the lake; as the story goes, Bedouin shepherds looking for a stray animal found the first Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave above the West Bank shore.

Which Egyptian president nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956, prompting an invasion by Britain, France and Israel?

Gamal Abdel Nasser. The invaders had to pull out within months under American and Soviet pressure, and he emerged a hero of Arab nationalism.

Which container ship blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March 2021?

The 400-metre Ever Given ran aground on 23 March 2021 and was refloated six days later, by which time more than 400 ships were waiting to pass.

How many locks do ships pass through on the Suez Canal?

Zero. It is a sea-level waterway, an open cut from one sea to the other, so ships sail all 193 km without ever being raised or lowered.

Which narrow waterway connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman?

The Strait of Hormuz is the Persian Gulf's only sea passage to the open ocean, which is why about a fifth of the world's oil supply was moving through it by the mid-2010s.

Which Gulf island nation is linked to Saudi Arabia by a causeway?

Bahrain. The link is the King Fahd Causeway, and in 2011 Saudi troops drove across it after Bahrain's rulers asked for help against mass protests.

What does 'Rub' al Khali', the name of the great desert of southern Arabia, mean?

Empty Quarter. The name suits the surface, which is almost uninhabited, yet vast oil reserves lie under the sands, including part of Ghawar, the world's largest conventional oil field.

OPEC was founded in Iraq, but which city houses its headquarters?

Vienna. In December 1975 gunmen led by Carlos the Jackal stormed a meeting there, seized more than 60 hostages including oil ministers, and flew many of them to Algiers.

Which non-Middle Eastern country was one of OPEC's five founding members?

Venezuela. Its oil minister Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo was a driving force behind OPEC, yet he later called petroleum 'the devil's excrement'.

The Arab League was founded in 1945 in which city?

Cairo. The league's headquarters has stayed there except from 1979 to 1990, when members moved it abroad to punish Egypt for making peace with Israel.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, founded in 1981, has how many member states?

Six: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE signed the GCC charter in Abu Dhabi in May 1981, and the council's secretariat sits in Riyadh.

The secret 1916 Anglo-French deal carving up the Ottoman Middle East is named after whom?

Sykes and Picot, a British and a French diplomat, drew it up in secret; Russia's Bolsheviks published it in 1917, embarrassing Britain, which had promised the Arabs independence.

Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in December 2010 sparked the Arab Spring in which country?

Bouazizi, a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, set himself alight on 17 December 2010; President Ben Ali fled the country on 14 January 2011, the first leader toppled by the Arab Spring.

Which square was the centre of the 2011 protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak?

Tahrir Square. Protesters were still camped there on 11 February, when the vice president went on state television to say Mubarak had handed power to the army.

Which city is considered the holiest in Islam and the birthplace of Muhammad?

Mecca. Wherever they are, Muslims turn towards the city five times a day to pray, and every believer who is able is expected to make the pilgrimage there once.

The Kaaba, which pilgrims circle during the Hajj, stands inside which mosque?

Masjid al-Haram, the Sacred Mosque, surrounds the Kaaba, which is draped in the kiswah, a silk cloth worked in gold that is taken down and replaced every year.

Pilgrims circling the Kaaba try to kiss which relic in its corner?

The Black Stone. Raiders carried it off in 930 and held it for over 20 years, and it survives as broken pieces bound together in a silver frame.

Jerusalem's Old City has Muslim, Christian, Jewish and which other quarter, named for the first state to adopt Christianity?

Armenian. Monks from Armenia settled in Jerusalem in the 4th century, soon after their kingdom converted, and the quarter grew up around their Cathedral of St James.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in which 1967 conflict?

The Six-Day War. Israel had warned Jordan to stay out of the fighting; when it joined in, Israeli forces drove its army out of East Jerusalem within three days.

Which leader read out Israel's declaration of independence in Tel Aviv on 14 May 1948?

David Ben-Gurion read it hours before British rule ended at midnight, became Israel's first prime minister, and within a day was fighting off invading Arab armies.

What is the name of Israel's parliament?

The Knesset fills its 120 seats by a nationwide party-list vote with no districts, which makes it hard for any one party to win a majority, so governments are built as coalitions.

Petra, the rock-cut city in Jordan, was built by which nomadic Arab people?

The Nabataeans, once-nomadic Arabs, grew rich on the spice and incense caravans that passed through Petra, until Rome annexed their kingdom in 106 AD.

Petra is nicknamed the 'Rose City' because of what?

The colour of its sandstone gave Petra the nickname, fixed in English by John William Burgon's prize-winning poem, which called it 'a rose-red city half as old as time'.

The Swiss traveller who 'rediscovered' Petra in 1812 went on to find which sand-buried Egyptian temples a year later?

Abu Simbel. Johann Burckhardt found the great temple almost buried in drifting sand in 1813, and Giovanni Belzoni dug his way inside four years later.

The Burj Khalifa is named after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the former president of which country?

Sheikh Khalifa was president of the UAE from 2004 until his death in 2022; his emirate, Abu Dhabi, bailed out Dubai in the 2009 debt crisis, and 'Burj Dubai' was renamed at its January 2010 opening.

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of how many emirates?

Seven. Six emirates formed the union in December 1971, and Ras Al Khaimah held out for two more months before joining in February 1972.

Before independence in 1971, the UAE emirates were collectively what British protectorate?

The Trucial States were sheikhdoms bound to Britain by a peace treaty of 1820 and a perpetual maritime truce of 1853, which ended raids on Gulf shipping in return for protection.

Iran was known internationally by what name until 1935?

Persia. The Greeks spread that name from a single southern province, but Iranians had always called their country Iran, and in 1935 Reza Shah asked the world to do the same.

Who became Iran's first supreme leader after the 1979 revolution overthrew the monarchy?

Ruhollah Khomeini returned on 1 February 1979 from 14 years of exile, the last months at Neauphle-le-Château outside Paris, and became Supreme Leader under the constitution adopted that December.

Cyrus the Great founded which ancient empire, later ruled by Darius and Xerxes?

Achaemenid. Cyrus founded the empire around 550 BC by overthrowing the Medes, and after taking Babylon he freed the Jews held captive there.

Which oil giant grew from the 1938 strike at Dammam No. 7, near the Persian Gulf?

Aramco. Six earlier wells at Dammam had disappointed, but geologist Max Steineke pressed on with a seventh, drilled deeper, and it struck oil in March 1938.

Which Gulf state hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the first held in the Middle East?

Qatar. Its summer heat is so fierce that the tournament was moved to November and December, the first World Cup not played in the middle of the year.

Amman, the capital of Jordan, was known by what name in antiquity?

Philadelphia. Egypt's King Ptolemy II Philadelphus conquered the city in the 3rd century BC and renamed it after himself; the old name came back after the Arab conquest in the 7th century.

Which part of Egypt lies in Asia rather than Africa?

The Sinai. The Suez Canal marks the usual line between Africa and Asia, so the peninsula east of it counts as Asian; Israel held it from 1967 until 1982.

Which of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the only one still standing?

The Giza pyramids. The Great Pyramid was already more than 2,000 years old when Greek writers first listed the wonders, and it has outlasted the other six.

Which dam on the Nile, completed in 1970, ended the river's annual flood in Egypt?

The Aswan High Dam. It tamed the flood that had fed Egypt's fields for millennia, but the fertile silt now settles behind the dam, so farmers depend on artificial fertiliser.

Which two languages are official in Iraq?

Arabic and Kurdish. The 2005 constitution put the two on an equal footing, so Iraq's banknotes, passports and stamps have to carry both languages.

Saddam Hussein rose to power in Iraq through which Arab nationalist party?

The Ba'ath Party. A rival branch of the same party ruled Syria, yet the two fell out so badly that Syria sent troops to join the coalition against Saddam in 1991.

Which Middle Eastern capital is often called the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world?

Damascus. Its great mosque shows the layers: the site held an Aramaean temple, then a Roman temple of Jupiter, then a church, before an Umayyad caliph built over it around 705.

What tree appears in green on the flag of Lebanon?

A cedar. Lebanon's cedar wood was so prized in ancient times for building temples that only a few remnants of the great mountain forest survive.

Which ancient maritime civilisation was based in what is now Lebanon?

Phoenicia, a string of trading city-states such as Tyre, Sidon and Byblos, gave the Greeks its 22-letter alphabet, which became the ancestor of the Latin script.

Which Arabian country's ruler moved his capital to the African island of Zanzibar in the 19th century?

Oman. Its ruler shifted his court from Muscat to Zanzibar, then a booming trading hub, and a branch of his family reigned on the island until 1964.

Which sultan ruled Oman from 1970 until his death in 2020?

Qaboos bin Said deposed his father Said bin Taimur in a 1970 palace coup and reigned until January 2020, by then the Arab world's longest-serving ruler.

North and South Yemen united in 1990 with which city as their shared capital?

Sanaa. The north's capital became the capital of the union, and when southern leaders tried to break away again in 1994 they lost a brief civil war.

Yemen's port of Mocha lent its name to what?

Coffee. Mocha was long Arabia's chief coffee-exporting port, so its name stuck to the beans and later to the chocolate-and-coffee drink.

Which US-led operation drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in early 1991?

Operation Desert Storm. Five weeks of air strikes were followed by a ground assault that took four days, and retreating Iraqi troops set hundreds of oil wells ablaze.

Which country's dinar was the world's most valuable currency unit in 2026?

Kuwait. One dinar buys more than three US dollars; when Iraq invaded in 1990 its troops looted the banknotes, so Kuwait cancelled the stolen series and printed a new one.

Before oil, Bahrain was famous for centuries for which industry?

Pearl fishing was Bahrain's mainstay for centuries, until the 1930s, when Japan's cultured pearls undercut the trade and oil, struck in 1932, took its place.

Jordan made peace with Israel in 1994 under which king?

King Hussein. After a string of secret meetings with Israeli leaders, he saw the treaty signed on the desert border between the two countries, with Bill Clinton as a witness.

Turkey's largest city is Istanbul, but which city is its capital?

Ankara. Atatürk had made the Anatolian town the headquarters of his resistance to the sultan's government and to invading Greek forces, and declared it the capital in 1923.

The Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453 ended which empire?

The Byzantine Empire. Sultan Mehmed II had a gunfounder from Hungary build cannon big enough to batter the city's ancient land walls, and his troops broke through on 29 May.

Which strait runs through the middle of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city?

The Bosphorus is part of the only sea route out of the Black Sea, so tankers and freighters bound for the Mediterranean sail straight through a city of 15 million people.

In 2022 the Turkish government asked the UN to use which name for the country in English?

Türkiye. The UN made the switch in June 2022 as soon as the request arrived; Turkey's state broadcaster had argued that the old English name invited confusion with the bird.

Which hilltop site holds carved stone pillars raised some 6,000 years before Stonehenge?

Göbekli Tepe. Its builders had no pottery or metal tools, and surveyors in the 1960s wrote the mound off as a medieval cemetery before digs began in the 1990s.

Arabic is written in which direction?

Right to left, with one exception: numerals inside a line of Arabic are still written from left to right.

Which US president's 1957 doctrine promised military or economic aid to Middle Eastern countries resisting communism?

Eisenhower. He announced it weeks after the Suez Crisis, and it met its first real test in 1958, when Lebanon's president asked for American help.

Which British diplomat wrote the 1902 Times series 'The Middle Eastern Question'?

His 20-article series followed the reprinting of Alfred Thayer Mahan's essay that had first popularised the phrase.

Hummus takes its name from the Arabic word for which legume, its main ingredient alongside tahini?

Chickpeas are simply 'hummus' in Arabic, so the dip's full name, hummus bi tahina, means 'chickpeas with tahini'. Lemon juice and garlic complete the classic recipe.

Which region of central Turkey is famous for its 'fairy chimney' rock spires and sunrise hot-air balloon flights?

Cappadocia's spires formed as wind and water wore away soft volcanic rock over millions of years. People carved churches, monasteries and whole underground cities into it.

Which Istanbul landmark, completed in 537 as a church, has since served as both a mosque and a museum?

Hagia Sophia enclosed the world's largest interior space when it was finished, beneath one of the first fully pendentive domes. It was a museum from 1935 to 2020.

Which bird of prey, prized by Gulf hunters, has the world's largest dedicated hospital in Abu Dhabi?

Falcons check in at a rate of about 11,000 patients a year. Since the Emirates introduced passports for the birds, the hospital has also been the body that issues them.

The Ishtar Gate and the fabled Hanging Gardens belonged to which ancient city on the Euphrates?

Babylon's Ishtar Gate was the most prominent of eight gates around the city. German excavators shipped pieces of it home, where it was rebuilt inside a Berlin museum.

Arab armies launched a surprise attack on Israel in October 1973 on which Jewish holy day?

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the Jewish year. Israel's prime minister and defence chiefs met that morning, six hours before the fighting began.

Whose treasure-filled tomb did excavators led by Howard Carter discover in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 1922?

Tutankhamun's burial goods were densely packed into an unusually small tomb. When Carter's patron Lord Carnarvon died months later, rumours spread that a curse on the tomb had killed him.

Which Gulf city built Palm Jumeirah, an artificial archipelago shaped like a palm tree when seen from the air?

Dubai's builders began stacking stone and sand for the island in June 2001. Homes and villas line the fronds, while luxury resorts sit on the outer ring that surrounds them.

Which narrator of 'One Thousand and One Nights' escapes execution by telling King Shahryar a story every night?

Scheherazade's own tales did not originally include Aladdin or Ali Baba. A French translator added both after hearing them from a visiting storyteller in Paris in 1709.

On which dormant volcano, the highest peak in Turkey, is Noah's Ark traditionally said to have come to rest?

Mount Ararat rises to 5,137 m in easternmost Turkey. Although it stands on Turkish soil, it is depicted with the ark on the coat of arms of Armenia.

The Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez are both northern arms of which sea?

The Red Sea averages about 40 parts per thousand of salt and is saltiest in the north. Its Gulf of Suez arm leads on to the Suez Canal.

Which body of water, bordering Iran to the north, is the largest inland one in the world?

The Caspian Sea is shared by five countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran. With no outlet to the ocean, it is also described as the world's largest lake.

Which island country has been divided since 1974 by a UN buffer zone known as the Green Line?

Cyprus is split between the internationally recognised republic and a breakaway north recognised only by Turkey. The 180 km zone even cuts through the capital, Nicosia.

Palmyra, the desert oasis city where Queen Zenobia rebelled against Rome, lies in which modern country?

Syria's Palmyra grew rich as a caravan stop between Rome and the East. The Roman emperor Aurelian levelled the city in 273, and it was later rebuilt at a reduced size.

Which Mediterranean capital was widely called the 'Paris of the Middle East' before civil war broke out in 1975?

Beirut was also known as the 'Switzerland of the Middle East' for its role as a financial and business hub. Fifteen years of civil war then devastated much of the city.

Which capital city, home to the Azadi Tower and Golestan Palace, sits at the foot of the Alborz mountains?

Tehran's Azadi Tower was finished in 1971 to mark 2,500 years of empire. First named the Shah's Memorial, it was renamed 'Freedom' after the monarchy fell.

Which walled city did Ibn Saud capture in 1902 from exile, later making it the capital of his new kingdom?

Riyadh fell when Ibn Saud took its Masmak fort from the rival Rashidi garrison. He spent three decades expanding from that base before proclaiming his kingdom in 1932.

Which Israeli city's 'White City' of over 4,000 Bauhaus-style buildings is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

Tel Aviv has more Bauhaus-style buildings than any other city in the world. Most date from the 1930s, designed by German Jewish architects who left after the Nazis took power.

Which Egyptian port city held both the ancient world's largest library and a lighthouse ranked among the Seven Wonders?

Alexandria was founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great. It served as Egypt's capital and stayed one of the leading cities of the Mediterranean for almost a millennium.

Which Iranian city, nicknamed 'Half of the World', is built around the vast Naqsh-e Jahan Square?

Isfahan's golden age began in 1598, when the Safavid ruler Abbas the Great made it his capital. Its central square is one of the largest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Which peninsula, bounded by the Black, Aegean and Mediterranean seas, makes up most of Turkey's land area?

Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia. By one definition it is simply the Asian part of Turkey.

Which desert covers more than half of Israel's land area, stretching south to the resort port of Eilat?

The Negev makes up at least 55% of the country. Some 350 to 500 wild Nubian ibex live in its highlands and in the mountains around Eilat.

Which lake, fed mainly by the Jordan River, is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth?

The Sea of Galilee lies between 209 and 215 metres below sea level, depending on rainfall. Among all the world's lakes, only the salty Dead Sea sits lower.

Which desert valley in southern Jordan, nicknamed the Valley of the Moon, often stands in for Mars in films?

Wadi Rum is cut into sandstone and granite about 60 km east of the port of Aqaba. The protected area has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011.

Which Yemeni island, where a third of the plants grow nowhere else, is dubbed 'the most alien-looking place on Earth'?

Socotra's best-known native is the dragon's blood tree, named for the blood-like colour of its red sap. Its dense, upturned crown is shaped like an umbrella.

Which water system, developed in ancient Iran about 3,000 years ago, taps an aquifer through an underground aqueduct?

Qanat technology spread across Asia and North Africa under many regional names, such as karez in Afghanistan and foggara in Algeria.

Which town holds the Church of the Nativity, built over a grotto revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus?

Bethlehem's grotto is the oldest site continuously used as a place of worship in Christianity. The basilica above it is the oldest major church in the Holy Land.

Which Herodian-era structure in Jerusalem's Old City is the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray?

The Western Wall is revered because the Holy of Holies, the most sacred site in the Jewish faith, is presumed to lie just above and behind it. Visitors tuck written prayers into its crevices.

To which city did Muhammad and his followers migrate in 622, a journey that begins the Islamic calendar?

Medina was known as Yathrib before the advent of Islam. Muhammad built the Prophet's Mosque there in 622, and it now serves as his burial site.

Which branch of Islam holds that Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was his rightful successor?

Shia Muslims recognise Ali alone as the true and legitimate heir to Muhammad's leadership. Sunni Muslims accept the three caliphs who ruled before him: Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman.

Which festival at the spring equinox, marked with a 'haft-sin' table of symbolic items, begins the Iranian new year?

Nowruz means 'New Day'. Each of the seven symbolic items on the haft-sin table has a name that begins with the same letter, the one pronounced 'seen'.

Which religion, founded in the 19th century, has its world centre and terraced gardens on Mount Carmel in Haifa?

The Baha'i Faith was established by Baha'u'llah, who died near Acre in 1892 while still formally a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire. The terraces on Mount Carmel joined the World Heritage List in 2008.

Which sacred language did Eliezer Ben-Yehuda help revive as an everyday spoken tongue from the late 19th century?

Hebrew had been the purely sacred language of Judaism. Ben-Yehuda, often called its reviver, was the first to propose bringing it back and began the dictionary that bears his name.

Which ancient language, believed to have been the main one Jesus spoke, is still used in the village of Maaloula?

Aramaic was the language of Jesus, who spoke its Galilean dialect, and of the Jerusalem Talmud. One of its dialects survives in Maaloula and two neighbouring towns.

Which writing system, the earliest known, was first developed to write the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia?

Cuneiform is named for the wedge-shaped marks, cuneus in Latin, that form its signs. It went on to record many other languages of the ancient Near East, from Akkadian to Hittite.

What name is given to the massive terraced temple towers of ancient Mesopotamia, such as the great one at Ur?

Ziggurat builders stacked successively receding levels into a terraced tower. The Sumerians believed the gods lived in the temple at the top, so only priests and other honoured people could enter.

Which legendary king of the Sumerian city of Uruk is the hero of the world's oldest surviving epic?

Gilgamesh was possibly a real king who was worshipped as a god after his death. In the epic he seeks out Utnapishtim, the flood survivor whom the gods rewarded with immortality.

Which sultan defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 and went on to capture Jerusalem?

Saladin began his rise in Egypt, where he was sent in 1164 with his uncle, a mercenary commander. He later led the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states during the Third Crusade.

Which Ottoman sultan, remembered in Turkey as 'the Lawgiver', was turned back at the siege of Vienna in 1529?

Suleiman I is 'the Magnificent' in the West. The Turkish epithet Kanuni honours the laws he issued, though it may date only from the 18th century. No Ottoman sultan reigned longer.

Which founder of the Turkish Republic replaced the Arabic-based Ottoman script with a Latin alphabet in 1928?

Atatürk, meaning 'Father of the Turks', is the surname that parliament granted Mustafa Kemal in 1934. Alongside the new letters, he opened thousands of schools.

Which British officer wrote 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom', an account of his part in the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule?

T. E. Lawrence worked in the region before the war as an archaeologist for the British Museum. He died in 1935, aged 46, after a motorcycle crash in Dorset.

Which agreements did Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin sign in 1978 after twelve days of secret US-hosted talks?

The Camp David Accords are named for the US president's country retreat in Maryland, where the talks were held. Sadat and Begin shared that year's Nobel Peace Prize for the deal.

Which dynasty, founded by the soldier Reza Khan in 1925, was the last to rule Iran before the revolution?

Pahlavi was a name Reza Khan adopted from the scripts of the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire. The dynasty he founded rooted its nationalism in that ancient, pre-Islamic past.

Which royal family has ruled Jordan since 1921 and also reigned over Iraq from 1921 until 1958?

The Hashemites, officially the House of Hashim, also ruled the kingdom of Hejaz from 1916 to 1925. Jordan's first king, Abdullah, was assassinated in 1951, but his descendants kept the throne.

Which medieval physician and philosopher wrote 'The Canon of Medicine', a standard text at many European universities?

Avicenna's medical encyclopedia stayed in use as late as 1650. His other famous work, The Book of Healing, is not a medical book at all but an encyclopedia of philosophy and science.

Which 9th-century scholar, described as the father of algebra, also gave his name to the word 'algorithm'?

Al-Khwarizmi's treatise Al-Jabr presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. Latin translators rendered his name as Algoritmi.

Which pear-shaped, fretless Middle Eastern lute is the ancestor of the lutes of medieval Europe?

Oud players usually pluck 11 strings grouped in six courses, on a short neck with no frets. Western lutes developed out of the instrument as it was played in the medieval Islamic world.

Which spice, grown mostly in Iran, takes some 150,000 crocus flowers to yield a single kilogram?

Saffron threads are the flower's crimson stigmas, and every one is picked by hand. About 440,000 of them go into a kilogram, which is why the spice is so costly.

Which Arabic news network, launched from Doha in 1996, has a name meaning 'The Island' or 'The Peninsula'?

Al Jazeera began broadcasting on 1 November 1996 as a state-funded Arabic-language channel. The network behind it went on to add an English-language sister channel.

Tahini, the paste stirred into hummus and baba ghanoush, is made by grinding which seeds?

Sesame seeds are usually hulled first; left unhulled, they give a slightly bitter but more nutritious paste. Tahini is also a major ingredient of the sweet called halva.