Alex Rowell
Senior Editor
Alex Rowell is a senior editor at New Lines magazine. He is the author of “We Are Your Soldiers: How Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World,” for which he received the 2025 Lokman Slim Prize, and “Vintage Humour: The Islamic Wine Poetry of Abu Nuwas.” He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Latest from Alex Rowell
Will Climate Concerns Push Scotland To Change Its Famous Whisky Taste?
A proposed ban on the sale of a key raw material used to make many of Scotland’s best whiskies raises an alarming question for the drink’s fans: Is their cherished Scotch destined, sooner or later, to lose its signature taste?
Leaving a Life in Lebanon
As war clouds gathered in October 2023, a New Lines editor watched with mounting concern for the country — and his family's safety. He recalls the events that prompted him to leave his home of 11 years, which is now in the throes of deadly conflict.
How a Now-Forgotten Assassination Almost Toppled Jordan’s Monarchy
A 1960 bombing that killed Jordanian Prime Minister Hazzaa al-Majali and 10 others nearly claimed the life of the young King Hussein himself. The unprecedented attack, which the monarch dubbed the “worst outrage in the history of Jordan,” was part of a broader turn across the Arab world toward darker and deadlier political norms.
Hamas Attacks on Israel From Lebanon Stoke Fears of a Repeat of History
The Cairo Agreement, signed on this day 54 years ago, serves as a byword for the diplomatic folly that set Lebanon on a path to doom. It is so notorious that when one analyst described a recent proposal as “another Cairo Agreement in the making” their Lebanese audience fully understood the danger.
A Talk With the Dean of Arab Liberalism
If Saghieh is branded today by fans and detractors alike as the dean, or grand old man, of Arab liberalism, he certainly did not begin his intellectual journey in that vein. It was only after 30 years of espousing every stripe of radicalism that he met with an insurmountable crisis of faith and “recovered,” as he puts it half-jokingly, from the “fever” of political extremism that would otherwise have killed him.
Hoping to Channel Nasser, Egypt’s Sisi Provokes a Backlash
Egypt's President Sisi has long sought to cast himself as a second Gamal Abdel Nasser. But, as rare public protests early this week illustrated, Egyptians now appear to have lost patience with the performance.
The Wine Critics of Early Islam
The language used by early Arab poets to appraise wine shows striking parallels to the style of wine criticism we know today. Arab and Muslim poets writing hundreds of years ago used a vocabulary to evaluate wine that would only become current in the West in the late 20th century.