The Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) lasted 15 years and by most estimates killed 150,000-250,000 people. It was a brutal, extended mess of a war, not unlike the one currently going on next door in Syria. And today happens to be the anniversary of the event that started it, the massacre of 27 Palestinians by Christian … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: Lebanon’s Bus Massacre (1975)
Tag: middle eastern history
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Dayr al-Aqul (876)
The Saffarid Dynasty ruled much of modern Iran and Afghanistan, and part of modern Pakistan, starting in the mid-860s through roughly 901, and then continued to control a small principality in Sistan until the start of the 11th century. They’re not heavily emphasized in Middle Eastern or Iranian history because they were so ephemeral (their … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Dayr al-Aqul (876)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Fariskur (1250)
Here is the eagerly (?) awaited conclusion to February’s story of the Seventh Crusade’s Battle of Mansurah. When last we left our plucky yet doomed Crusaders, under the command of the very willing but not really able Louis IX of France (d. 1270), they’d suffered a decisive defeat at Mansurah and were sent scrambling back across … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Fariskur (1250)
Today in Middle Eastern history: Iran becomes “Iran” (1935)
I know that title seems too cutesy and I apologize for that. It is both a historical oddity and a signifier of our general Orientalist indifference toward the peoples of the Middle East that the nation (kingdom, empire, whatever it was at any particular point in history) of Iran was never officially called “Iran” by … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: Iran becomes “Iran” (1935)
Today in Iranian history: the Shahnameh is completed (1010)
Obviously there are a lot of important works of literature that have been created over the years and across the many cultures of the world, so if I were to describe Abu'l-Qasim Ferdowsi's Shahnameh as simply a great work of literature I would be doing it something of an injustice. It is a great work … Continue reading Today in Iranian history: the Shahnameh is completed (1010)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the 1966 Syrian coup
Syria’s road from French colony (er, I mean “mandate”) to the mess it is today was littered with coups d’état: three in 1949, one each in 1951, 1954, 1961, 1963, and 1966, and finally the 1970 Corrective Movement that brought Hafez al-Assad to power. I’m probably missing a couple somewhere along the way. Through it all, … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the 1966 Syrian coup
Today in Middle Eastern history: the 1921 Iranian coup
The fall of imperial Russia in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution should have been good news for Iran’s Qajar dynasty, which had fought three wars with Russia and lost much of its Caucasian territory in the process. But instead of eliminating a serious rival, the events of 1917 upset the delicate balance of … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the 1921 Iranian coup
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Sixth Crusade ends (1229)
If it’s fair to say that the Fourth Crusade’s sacking of Constantinople discredited the whole enterprise, and in my opinion it is, the Sixth Crusade wrung the last vestiges of seriousness out of the movement. Ironically, of the numbered Crusades it was one of the more successful—certainly more successful than the disastrous Second, Fifth, Seventh, … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Sixth Crusade ends (1229)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Mongols sack Baghdad (1258)
The Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258 brought an end the Abbasid caliphate in most practical senses. It was, obviously, a pivotal moment in world history, and is among the handful of events about which you can genuinely say that the world was one way before it happened and another way after it happened. At … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Mongols sack Baghdad (1258)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of al-Mansurah begins (1250)
Before King Louis IX of France (d. 1270) led the weirdly conceived and badly failed Eighth Crusade against Tunis, he earned his Crusader bona fides on the better conceived but still badly failed Seventh Crusade, which is our subject today. As I wrote when we talked about the Eighth Crusade, if medieval BuzzFeed had put together a … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of al-Mansurah begins (1250)
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 