If one were inclined to rank the most important battles in world history, the Battle of Yarmouk probably should be pretty high on the list. It eliminated, over the course of one 6-day battle, almost the entirety of the Byzantine military south of the Taurus Mountains, leaving Syria and the rest of the Levant (with … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Yarmouk (636)
Category: history
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Marj Rahit (684)
The early caliphate was not an especially stable place. In the two centuries after Muhammad’s death in 632, the empire went through four civil wars (the four fitnas, as they’re known). It’s fair to say that the second of these, which lasted from 680 to 692, was basically a do over of the first, with the same factions (the … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Marj Rahit (684)
Today in European history: the Martyrs of Otranto (1480)
When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II (who would subsequently be known as Mehmed the Conqueror) decided to bestow upon himself the title of Caesar (Kaysar-i Rum, in Persian). It seems pretty obvious that, although today we think of the “Fall of Constantinople” as the end of the Byzantine/Roman Empire, in 1453 the … Continue reading Today in European history: the Martyrs of Otranto (1480)
Today in European history: the Battle of Mohács (1687)
Today is the anniversary of the second of two major Ottoman battles at Mohács, in southern Hungary. The anniversary of the first, which took place in 1526, will come around in a couple of weeks. Although they shared a setting and one combatant, the two battles of Mohács couldn’t have gone more differently. In the … Continue reading Today in European history: the Battle of Mohács (1687)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Ascalon (1099)
Most modern historians of the Crusades agree that the way we separate and number the multiple Crusade expeditions is ahistorical at best and misleading at worst. For one thing, the flow of European warriors to the Holy Land was not nearly as organized and episodic as the numbering system suggests. For another thing, treating the … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Ascalon (1099)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Otlukbeli (1473)
I assume most or even all of you have heard of the Ottomans, but I’m not sure how many have heard of the Aqquyunlu (“white sheep” in Turkish) tribal confederation, as it is considerably more obscure. The Aqquyunlu didn’t have a very long run as a major world power, hence the obscurity. But for a … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Otlukbeli (1473)
Today in Middle Eastern history: Iraq invades Kuwait (1990)
It took just under 2 years from the end of the Iran-Iraq War for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to irrevocably destroy his relationships with his two biggest allies, Kuwait and the United States. Yes, that’s right, today is the anniversary of Saddam’s decision to invade Kuwait and officially kick off the Gulf War, aka “The … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: Iraq invades Kuwait (1990)
Today in Middle Eastern History: the Siege of Damascus ends (1148)
While the Fourth Crusade is really the archetypal Crusade in many respects—setting off to capture Jerusalem and conquering Constantinople instead really sums up the whole enterprise—the Second Crusade is the one that really set the tone for what the Crusades were capable of becoming. It started off with reasonable goals, fell apart in the planning … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern History: the Siege of Damascus ends (1148)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Siffin (657)
Today is (give or take) the anniversary of the start of the Battle of Siffin, the key battle of the First Fitna (civil war) in Islamic history, about which you can read more here. The caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, led an army of 80,000 men (allegedly) against the governor of Syria, Muʿawiyah, and his 120,000 … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Siffin (657)
Today in Middle Eastern history: Egypt’s 23 July Revolution (1952)
Today marks the anniversary of one of the most important events in 20th century Middle Eastern history, the overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy by the Free Officers Movement. This was a group of military officers ostensibly led by General Muhammad Naguib, but really led by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was gracious enough to let … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: Egypt’s 23 July Revolution (1952)
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 