Memory and Politics in Lebanon
by Bernard Hage
Three decades after the end of the Civil War, Lebanese society is still divided along sectarian lines. The younger generation strives to change their parents’ mindset.
History
Column by Daniel Gerlach, zenith editor-in-chief: Battle over the Mediterranean
For a long time, the Mediterranean was a battleground exclusively for European and other Western powers. These days it is becoming crowded.
Column by editor-in-chief Daniel Gerlach: Trump and rapture
Things are closing in on the US President. Three Middle Eastern stories of a caliph, a rabbi and a thaumaturge may offer him some inspiration.
Back to the roots in Southern Lebanon
Ghadir Hamadi always felt that her roots were firmly in the southern Lebanese town of her ancestors. Then Covid-19 hit – and only then did she discover what life is really like there.
Tatars in the Wehrmacht
by Leo Wigger
Thousands of Muslim Tatars fought for the Wehrmacht against the Soviet Union. The historian Iskander Gilyazov speaks to zenith about the Muslim Idel-Ural Legion, taboos and how history views national heroes and collaborators.
Russia, Islam and History
by Leo Wigger
Fearing supposed ethnic replacement and Islamisation, the German Right looks longingly towards Russia. What kind of ahistorical myopia is that?
Remembering the 1979 Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan
Today's Afghanistan is in many ways a result of the events that began to unfold in 1979. Journalist Waheed Massoud has been living through all of it and reminisces about how the last four decades have shaped him and his generation.
Saudi Arabia and 1979
Saudis, who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, only need to ask their parents and grandparents what another Saudi Arabia may look like. Forty years after 1979, our generation can finally influence the course of the country.