Cities

Hassan Mahamdallie discovers shoots of hope in the wastelands of Detroit. Peter Clark thinks that Istanbul is the eternal capital of the world, Robert Irwin is impressed by intellectual developments in Medieval Basra, Boyd Tonkin is unimpressed by off-the-peg culture in Persian Gulf Cities, Eric Walberg finds friendship, authoritarianism and Islam in Tashkent, Javaad Alipoor is haunted by utopias in Tehran, Nimra Khan visits the transgender community of Lahore, Jeremy Henzell-Thomas tries to make sense of city rankings, Paul Vallely investigates the complicated financial system of the Vatican, Irfan Yusuf takes us on a guided tour of mosques in Sydney, Martin Rose recounts the history of Rabat - the 'pearl of Morocco', Irna Qureshi and Syima Aslam organise a literary festival in Bradford, VMK photographs the migrant workers of Dubai, and Zina Mamouni watches Abderrahmane Sissako's brilliant film Timbuktu. 

In this issue

  • low-angle photography of a brown archway in district 10 in Tehran, Iran under a calm blue sky
    Issue 18 Cities

    Utopia in Tehran

    From Plato’s Republic onwards, the idea of a politics built on an imagined city has allowed generations of thinkers to engage with the vision of a…

    Javaad Alipour
  • Evening Sun in the Unique Beauty of Istanbul
    Issue 18 Cities

    Istanbul: Capital of the World

    Istanbul, Constantinople, al-Āsitāna, Qustantiniya, Tsarigrad, Mucklegarth – Bolis – the city on the Bosphorus, the largest city in Turkey, means…

    Peter Clark
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