Hey, I've moved! If you enjoy this post you can find more of my writing at Foreign Exchanges, a Substack newsletter covering a variety of topics in history and foreign affairs. Check it out today and become a subscriber! Jennifer Thea Gordon at National Interest has what is actually not a bad piece challenging the … Continue reading Sykes-Picot Still Confounds
Category: history
Islamic History, part 24: the Islamic West through the early 10th century
Islamic History Series OK, I know last time I said we'd be getting onto Islamic theology with this one, but that's coming next time. Instead, let's talk about what's going on in North Africa and Spain in the period through 909 (in Africa) and 912 (in Spain), because if we don't do it now we'll … Continue reading Islamic History, part 24: the Islamic West through the early 10th century
Islamic History, part 23: another civil war and the caliphate of al-Maʾmun (809-833)
Islamic History Series Assuming that I manage to keep going with this series, things are going to get a lot more, well, a lot more everything, really, moving forward. The political situation is going to get more complicated, because, believe it or not, this whole caliphate thing isn't going to remain stable much longer (actually … Continue reading Islamic History, part 23: another civil war and the caliphate of al-Maʾmun (809-833)
Columbus and the Islamic World
Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day! As today is the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the “New World,” I thought it appropriate to examine his impact on the Old World—specifically on the part of the Old World controlled by Muslim powers in 1492. This is just a placeholder. If you’d like to read the rest please … Continue reading Columbus and the Islamic World
A Persian Shah in Europe
A website called iroon.com has put together a video of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, who ruled Iran (which most people outside Iran then called "Persia") from 1896 until his death in 1907, based on photos, films, and even an audio recording from the three trips he made to Europe while he was Shah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh1iO5QuJvg The … Continue reading A Persian Shah in Europe
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Chaldiran (1514)
Today is the anniversary of a battle that had far-reaching implications for the Middle East, but that gets relatively little recognition if you’re not a specialist in either Ottoman or Safavid history. The 1514 Battle of Chaldiran determined, among other things, that the Safavids would not be invading Anatolia, and it established the basic template … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Chaldiran (1514)
Islamic History, part 22: the Caliphate of Harun al-Rashid (786-809)
Islamic History Series It's not my intention to spend a lot of future entries on individual caliphs, because that would take forever and because, from this point on, there aren't a lot of caliphs who warrant that much space. But Harun al-Rashid does. If there's one caliph from the Abbasid period who epitomizes what the … Continue reading Islamic History, part 22: the Caliphate of Harun al-Rashid (786-809)
On the Yazidis
Since we're now bombing northern Iraq in part to try to save the Yazidis, it's worth knowing more about them. This National Geographic piece is a pretty good start: The Yazidi religion is often misunderstood, as it does not fit neatly into Iraq’s sectarian mosaic. Most Yazidis are Kurdish speakers, and while the majority consider themselves … Continue reading On the Yazidis
Islamic History, part 21: The Abbasids take over (750-786)
Islamic History SeriesWell, it's been a while since I had time to put one of these together. Sorry about that. Trying to eke out some freelance work and desperately looking for a regular gig kind of saps your will for big projects, I find.Aside from lacking the time to undertake another chapter of this series, … Continue reading Islamic History, part 21: The Abbasids take over (750-786)
What Is a Caliphate and Should You Be Terrified of It?
Apparently ISIS isn't ISIS anymore. Or ISIL, either. I mean, feel free to keep calling it those things, but the group itself is now just going by "The Islamic State" (IS), or al-Dawlat al-Islamiyah in Arabic. This move clarifies all the questions people have been asking about the group's name, from whether it's better to … Continue reading What Is a Caliphate and Should You Be Terrified of It?
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