Jerusalem and the Gaza War
Hassan Nasrallah’s supple speech on Gaza is no reason to sound the all-clear. If violence spills over to the West Bank and Jerusalem, an all-out war would be hard to contain.
Daniel Gerlach
Hatra in Iraq
Unravelling the real secret of Iraq’s Desert Queen.
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.
Obituary: Christoph Sydow
A keen-eyed observer of the Middle East who asked the right questions and found answers to many of them. A sportsman you could rely on. But above all, our dear friend and colleague. We mourn Christoph Sydow.
Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis
In 2017, zenith’s editor-in-chief, Daniel Gerlach, met Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, “the Engineer” behind a prominent Iraqi paramilitary organisation, who was killed on 3 January by a US drone strike in Baghdad. Who was he and what drove him?
Gilles Kepel and the Middle east
Gilles Kepel’s latest book on ‘getting out of the chaos’ in the Middle East can be read as an account of the interplay of authoritarian rule and Islamist mobilisation. Or as a critical appraisal of Kepel’s own intellectual journey.
Jihadism vs Muqawamism
The ideology of resistance is a distinct feature of powerful armed groups in the Middle East. It is time to introduce a new concept and, probably, a new term.