Al-Ghazali’s book ‘Alchemy of Happiness,’ held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Al-Ghazali - Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons
In religious traditions, patience is more than waiting, or even more than enduring a hardship. But what does patience look like? And when should we not exercise patience?
A military spouse hugs a U.S. soldier at Joint Base Langley-Eustis ahead of deployment on March 12, 2024.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
President Reagan said sending troops to Lebanon was his ‘greatest regret.’ Other presidents left office with similar misgivings. Could leaving troops in Syria and Iraq be the next strategic mistake?
Donald Trump hugs and kisses the American flag as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., in February 2024.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A second Donald Trump presidency would not necessarily implement a foreign policy any more destructive than what is normal for the United States.
Esmail Ghaani, head of Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force, speaks at a ceremony in Tehran on April 14, 2022.
AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
Esmail Ghaani took control of the unconventional warfare wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps following the killing of predecessor Qassem Soleimani.
Andrew Matthews/PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo
The UK government needs to define its goals and the scope of its involvement in a campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
‘Pressure cooker of despair’: Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt.
Ismael Mohamad/UPI/Alamy Live News
A selection of analysis from our coverage of the war in Gaza over the past fortnight.
Armed and dangerous: fighters from Iran’s Quds Force at a funeral for comrades killed in the February 2 US airstrikes in Iraq.
EPA-EFE/Ahmed Jalil
Iran funds a large network of armed groups across the Middle East as part of its ambition to replace the US as regional power.
EPA-EFE/Michael Reynolds
The Biden administration has calibrated its strikes so as not to provoke a wider armed conflict in the region.
The headquarters of an Iranian-linked group in Anbar, Iraq was among the sites targeted by U.S. bombers.
Hashd al-Shaabi Media Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
More than 85 locations linked to militias were hit in a robust response by Washington to an earlier deadly drone attack on a US base in Jordan.
President Joe Biden attends the arrival of the remains of three U.S. service members killed in a drone attack in Jordan.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
The US attacks on military sites in Iraq and Syria are unlikely to further escalate conflict in the Middle East, he writes.
Hadi Mizban/AP
The Shia militant groups operating in Iraq, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East share political and ideological connections, yet they also have their own nationalist goals.
Weighing up options: the US president, Joe Biden, is considering how to retaliate to the drone attack which killed three US servicemen in Jordan on January 28.
Adam Schultz/White House Photo/Alamy Live News
History tells us that US presidents tend to be cautious about foreign policy in an election year – especially in the Middle East.
Under pressure: Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivers an economic briefing, January 30 2024.
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo
Facing a parliamentary election in March, the Islamic Republic is trying to distract attention away from its economic woes with a show of strength.
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Ebrahim Raisi, right, greets the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, at the start of their meeting at his office in Tehran in June 2023.
(Iranian Presidency Office, via AP)
Iran prefers to engage Israel through its proxies, but the risk of escalation makes this a dangerous strategy.
George W Bush used the phrase “axis of evil” to define his foreign policy in a 2002 speech.
AP/Alamy
So far, the revival of the ‘axis’ appears to be largely coming from Republicans, rather than the White House.
EPA-EFE/Wael Hamzeh
Israel is effectively fighting a war on two fronts.
RoProy/Shutterstock
War is often described as long periods of waiting punctuated by short periods of terror – for the environment, the reverse is true.
EPA-EFE/Abedin Taherkenareh
As Israel prepares for a land invasion of Gaza, tensions are rising in the region between Iran and the US.
EPA/AHMED JALIL
In our new research we examined popular music videos which drew on historical myths and contemporary clergymen to mobilise Iraq’s Shia population to fight the Islamic State.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, pool, File
A scholar who has closely followed reforms that MBS has made to Wahhabism, an austere form of Islam, explains the changes taking place in the Saudi kingdom and their impact.