Like digging through archaeological layers, documenting the development of language and writing provides important clues about historical events. Recent …
Episode 93: Women and the Tamil Epics
Male-dominated narratives, male authors, and male-centered agency and priorities have been the norm throughout history, until the latter half of the …
Episode 75: The Birmingham Qur’ān
In the summer of 2015, an obscure Qur'ān manuscript hidden in the far reaches of the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham grabbed attention …
Episode 72: Roundtable – Antiquities in Danger
Straight from the headlines: ISIS destroys the temple of Bal at Palmyra. Looters steal friezes from Greco-Roman sites in Ukraine under the cover of conflict. A …
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Episode 67: How Jews Translate the Bible and Why
Any student of a foreign language knows that the process of translating a text can be laden with unexpected choices about words, sentence structure, and phrases …
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Episode 61: The Fatimids
Around the first millennium of the Christian era, a small group of Ismaili Shi’i Muslims established a dynasty that rapidly conquered North Africa from the …
Episode 58: Islam’s First Civil War
In 7th century Arabia, the Islamic community was nearly torn apart by a civil war over the assassination of the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan (d. 656), and the …
Episode 57: The Succession to Muhammad
Nearly every world history textbook on the market explains the origins of sectarianism in the Islamic world as a dispute over the succession to Muhammad. …
Episode 53: Cats and Dogs in History
Our first episode of season 3 features the curator of the exhibition In the Company of Cats and Dogs. We consider some of the inherent personalities and …
Episode 51: Islam’s Enigmatic Origins
The story of Islam's beginnings have been told and retold countless times. The traditional narrative says that the Prophet Muhammad, an illiterate orphan from …
Episode 47: Indian Ocean Trade from its Origins to the Eve of Imperialism
Every American schoolchild knows that Columbus sailed west to reach Asia with the hopes of finding precious metals, expensive fabrics, and exotic spices: all …
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Episode 31: Who are the Turks?
Over the past two thousands years, the Turkic peoples have migrated and expanded from a small group of pastoral nomads in what is now western China to form …
Episode 24: European Imperialism in the Middle East (part 2)
World War I had a profound impact on the Middle East and North Africa. With the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, European powers carved the region into mandates, …
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Episode 23: European Imperialism in the Middle East (part 1)
The relationship between European, North African, and Southwest Asian nations that border the Mediterranean stretches back to antiquity and reflects a long …
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