Guest Author - Rachel A. Schaus

The Middle Eastern Culture site at BellaOnline intends to cover all aspects of Middle and Near-Eastern Culture, ancient and modern. Some of the topics include food, language, fine art, food, geography, peoples, customs, and history. Current events with relevance to ancient history may occasionally also be covered. If there is a topic not covered, please send me input on what you'd like to learn more about.

The Middle East covers a broad geographical area with 7,000 years of history. It is also the birthplace of three major world religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Over the next few months, you'll see new and improved organization of the site, as well as new book reviews and articles.

As the new editor of this topic, it will take some time to cover so much area, but come and join me on an adventure as we explore the little lanes and bazaars of the Middle East together!

If you have an area of interest that you'd like to see more about, feel free to contact me via the forum to make suggestions, and I'll prioritize your topic ahead of the current schedule!

There are a number of ways to keep track of new content on the Middle Eastern Culture site. The newsletter and eventually RSS feeds will be practical ways you can stay informed of updates and new articles.

I have a weekly email newsletter for the Middle Eastern Culture site. The newsletter comes out once a week, usually on Tuesdays and includes information about the latest article(s) on the site.

To subscribe to the newsletter, enter your email address in the box at the bottom of the page. I promise to keep your email confidential and use it only to send you the newsletter.

New articles will be uploaded weekly. However, if you want to check out past newsletters first, see the archive of newsletters below. You can also read current and past issues of the newsletter online - just click on an article and click on the link at the bottom of the page.

I look forward to hearing from you and learning together! – Rachel