The feud between the Knights Hospitaller (aka the Knights of Rhodes and, later, the Knights of Malta) and the Ottoman Empire follows the standard big budget movie trilogy playbook, assuming you’re OK with casting the Knights as the protagonists. The saga begins with the Ottoman siege of Rhodes in 1480, from which the heavily outnumbered … Continue reading Today in European history: the Siege of Rhodes ends (1522)
Category: history
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Konya (1832)
The Battle of Konya, fought on December 21, 1832, was the decisive battle in the 1831-1833 Ottoman-Egyptian War, and in that sense it serv—I’m sorry, you had a question? Yes, the Ottoman-Egyptian War of 18—yes? Oh, right. We’re skipping over a very important detail. The Ottomans conquered Egypt and ended the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517, and in … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Konya (1832)
Islamic History, part 29b: Early Islamic Law (c. 700 – c. 850) — Shafiʿi and Ibn Hanbal
Islamic History Series Please start with part 29a Muhammad b. Idris al-Shafiʿi (d. ~820), who I just mentioned in the last entry, is the third legal theorist (founder of the Shafiʿi madhhab) you need to know something about. Born in Gaza in or around 767, his family moved to Mecca when he was still a … Continue reading Islamic History, part 29b: Early Islamic Law (c. 700 – c. 850) — Shafiʿi and Ibn Hanbal
Islamic History, part 29a: Early Islamic Law (c. 700 – c. 850) — Abu Hanifah and Malik
Islamic History Series This has been a long time in coming, and there's a simple reason for it: I haven't had the time to write it. Sorry. Here's the thing: the study of Islamic Law is its own discipline and it's one that I don't have a whole lot of familiarity with. I can give … Continue reading Islamic History, part 29a: Early Islamic Law (c. 700 – c. 850) — Abu Hanifah and Malik
Today in South Asian history: the Indo-Pakistani War and Bangladesh Liberation War both end (1971)
India and Pakistan have fought no fewer than four major wars since the two nations came into being in 1947. Where their 1971 war stands out from the others is that it had nothing (directly, at least) to do with the disputed region of Kashmir. In fact, the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War was really the final … Continue reading Today in South Asian history: the Indo-Pakistani War and Bangladesh Liberation War both end (1971)
Today in Middle Eastern history: Reza Pahlavi is crowned Shah of Iran (1925)
A couple of decades before Britain sat Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi on the Iranian throne and several decades before they helped engineer the coup that kept him in power, British operatives were also responsible for the Iranian coup that enthroned his father, Reza Shah Pahlavi (d. 1944), and instituted the Pahlavi “Dynasty.” I put “dynasty” in quotes … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: Reza Pahlavi is crowned Shah of Iran (1925)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Crusaders capture Maʿarrat al-Nuʿman (1098)
The First Crusade's conquest of the city of Maʿarrat al-Nuʿman was noteworthy for at least two reasons, one fairly blasé and the other definitely not. On the blasé side, Maʿarrat al-Nuʿman was an important waypoint along the march from Antioch to Jerusalem, and the Crusaders couldn't get from the former to the latter without capturing … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Crusaders capture Maʿarrat al-Nuʿman (1098)
Today in Middle Eastern history: General Allenby comes to Jerusalem (1917)
In a sense, if you’re into this sort of thing, there are some parallels you could draw between the British army’s capture of Jerusalem and the Crusades. I mean, Edmund Allenby was technically a European Christian, and there he was, on December 11, 1917, marching into having successfully conquered the city that had been the … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: General Allenby comes to Jerusalem (1917)
Today in European History: the Russians capture Plevna (1877)
Although they’ve settled into a kind of love-hate rut nowadays, historically relations between the precursors of modern Russia and modern Turkey have tended not to be so great. Consider that the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, two of those precursors, fought a whopping 12 wars against one another between the second half of the … Continue reading Today in European History: the Russians capture Plevna (1877)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the First Intifada begins (1987)
In contrast with the Second Intifada, which Israeli politician Ariel Sharon deliberately provoked when he and 1000 Israeli police officers marched on to the Haram al-Sharif in September 2000, the First Intifada (the Arabic word means “popular uprising”) began almost by chance. On December 8, 1987, an Israeli Defense Forces truck crashed into a line of cars stuck … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the First Intifada begins (1987)
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 