Doctors are rightly cherished in our Covid-plagued world, but can they write poetry? A new translation of a 13th-century Syrian classic recalls a time when physicians were also rockstar musicians, celebrated authors, and public intellectuals.

After a high blood pressure diagnosis, Al-Jumhuriya’s English editor did the unthinkable: he stopped drinking coffee. What followed was weeks of physical, mental, even spiritual torment.

A quick English summary of our Arabic news coverage this week

[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Arabic on 7 November, 2017.] MA’ARRAT AL-NU’MAN, Syria – The house had grown old after its abandonment in 2008, and the decapitation of its statue in 2013, with two bullets shot through the cloak with which the sculptor Muhammad Qabawa had enveloped the statue’s figure. The grave remained alone, adorned with the words selected by its childless…