🏙️ Top Muslim cities to live in

In a week when an astronaut showed us what Makkah looks like from space (very bright), soccer legend Mo Salah moved to a Turkish club (with appropriate fan celebrations), and Saudi Arabia swallowed gaming company EA in one gulp, Musletter remained solidly earth-bound and got to work on rounding up stories for you.

Here’s what we have for you in this edition:

Plus: Our recommendations on what to read, watch, and buy!

Let’s jump right in!

🌆 Unique study into the best Muslim cities: Too often these rankings focus on the best cities (or countries) for Muslim tourists. This one is different: it’s about the Muslim world’s most livable cities. Using Numbeo’s 2026 Quality of Life Index, it examined safety, healthcare, cost of living, commuting, pollution, and climate – rather than hotel amenities and number of rollercoasters. Basically, what you care about if you’re moving your entire family across the world. Abu Dhabi came out top, followed by Muscat, Doha and Manama. Meanwhile, Türkiye had a strong showing with Bursa, Antalya and Izmir in the top ten. Dubai, Jeddah and Riyadh rounded out the list.

🇹🇷🇸🇦🇵🇰 KSA, Pakistan, Türkiye sign defense pact: In a kind of ‘all for one, one for all’ agreement, three Muslim-majority nations have signed a mutual defense agreement. A bit like NATO but with better food. It was signed – with a big dose of significance – in Makkah, with the three heads of state praying together. Now, if you attack one of these countries, you’ve attacked all of them. Command structure and defense infrastructure will take time, but Turkey has already embedded itself in Europe’s defense-industrial base (in other words, it’s making drones, missiles, ships, etc, that people want), which will help bolster this ‘necessary show of force’.

🇺🇸 🇧🇩 The Muslim engineer behind the modern city skyline: Multiple award-winning structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan was the inventor of tubular structural design, which revolutionized how skyscrapers were constructed. The Bangladeshi-American’s methods made the building’s exterior carry the load, using less steel, creating more interior space, and enabling much taller towers. Khan’s designs include Chicago’s Willis Tower (the tallest building in the world until 1998), Chicago’s 100-story John Hancock Center, and the Hajj Terminal at Jeddah Airport with its tent-like roof (one of the world’s largest permanent cable-supported fabric roofs). His work also continues to influence new buildings, including Burj Khalifa and One World Trade Center. Known as the Einstein of structural engineering, he reignited interest in skyscraper construction from the 1950s onwards and pioneered computer-aided structural analysis.

🇸🇾 Syria’s tourism boom drives investment and tech: Syria’s tourism sector is seeing numbers double in the first half of 2026 (even the Subway Takes guy is visiting). With a 176% increase in people coming from Saudi Arabia alone, and a shortage of hotel rooms across Syria, it’s prime time for Gulf investors to build hotels and build them fast. Meanwhile, the tourism industry as a whole is getting an update with a UAE-based Syrian startup launching the super app My Syria, bringing together hotel bookings, restaurants, transport, and attractions (even supporting international checkout via Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express). From hospitality to the digital economy, Syria’s tourism revival is set to attract global interest.

🇦🇪 Abu Dhabi mega-project round-up: Abu Dhabi is embarking on a series of mega-projects across entertainment, transportation, and real estate. These include Sphere Abu Dhabi (imagine a neon moon just crashed on Yas Island), which will house concerts and ‘immersive experiences’ (presumably stuff requiring weird goggles). Anyway, it costs $1.7 billion. To build it, not to visit. Yas Island will also be home to the future Disneyland. Elsewhere, you just can’t get away from Harry Potter, which will set up shop at Warner Bros World. Meanwhile, Etihad Rail will link 11 cities across the UAE, and there are also plans for multiple new luxury residences, including a Ritz-Carlton Reserve.

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