The Safavid Princess in Power

Where does a woman go when a King is wooing her and won't stop? Dana speaks with Chief Historian of Historic Royal Palaces, Tracy Borman, about her newest historical fiction novel, THE HOUSE OF BOLEYN. Support Noble Blood:—ORDER 'THE ARCANE ARTS'— Bonus episodes, stickers, and sc ...  Show more

Comic Sans is a punchline. But the notorious font's legacy isn't one of failure, because Comic Sans succeeded in ways its critics never saw coming. * Listen to Dana Schwartz on Very Special Episodes wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informati ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Safavid Dynasty, rulers of the Persian empire between the 16th and 18th centuries.In 1501 Shah Ismail, a boy of fifteen, declared himself ruler of Azerbaijan. Within a year he had expanded his territory to include most of Persia, and founde ...  Show more

Sold as a slave to the great Abbasid Caliph, al-Khayzuran quickly rose to the very top of the pyramid. Through marriage and motherhood, she became wife of the caliph and then Queen Mother and in both instances she wielded extraordinary power. In the court at Baghdad - the very he ...  Show more

Ottoman Sultans kept a harem of hundreds of enslaved concubines to bear their children. But from 1533 to 1656 a handful of remarkable women bent the harem system to their wills and exercised extraordinary political influence and power. This period is known as the The Sultanate of ...  Show more

Succession once again warrants its own episode. Al Saffah relied on three commanders to oversee different parts of his caliphate, and while the setup kept the new dynasty safe and stable, the ambitions of these three leaders clashed soon after the caliph passed away.