Episode 1: The Tower of Babel (Cuneiform)

Sufism emerged in the 700s and 800s as a powerful part of Islam's development under the caliphates. This episode covers its early history, focusing on a generation of thinkers who lived between about 850 and 920. Episode 128 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/quiz-128/ Episod ...  Show more

DOUG'S NEW BOOK - The Odyssey: An Illustrated Guide COLORING BOOK VERSION - The Odyssey Coloring Book Bashshar ibn Burd, feisty, restless, brilliant, and wise, was one of the founding figures of Classical Arabic poetry. Learn about his wife and works in this episode. Episode 127 ...  Show more

An ancient people build a tower to touch the heavens. A vengeful god disrupts the project through the splintering of human language. Everyone’s left to pick up the pieces. The Tower of Babel myth resonates out from the Mesopotamian cradle of civilization, but what does it mean ...

For thousands of years, ancient cuneiform - the script of the ancient Mesopotamians was lost to time, until being dramatically rediscovered in the 19th century by an adventurous group of unlikely Victorians. A dashing archaeologist, an officer turned diplomat and a reclusive c ...

The Tower of Babel story is iconic. Featured in the Book of Genesis, it explains how different languages came to be across the world. But what are its origins?

Join Tristan Hughes and Prof. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones in this special episode of The Ancients - recorded live ...

In the dusts of Iraq, the ruins of the world's first civilization lie buried. This episode, we travel into the extremely distant past to look at the Sumerians. These ancient people invented writing and mathematics, and built some of the largest cities that the world had ever seen ...  Show more