Why Did The Great Wall Of China Fail To Keep Out The Mongols?
How long is the Great Wall of China? When was it built? Are there really skeletons buried inside it?Matt Lewis poses these questions and many more to Dr Jeremiah Jenne, co-host of the Chinese history podcast, Barbarians at the Gate. Together they recount the storied development o ...Show more
What Happened To The French Crown Jewels?
What really happened to the French crown jewels? On the 19th October, 2025, a gang of thieves disguised as construction workers broke into the Louvre. Their target: the Gallery of Apollo, where the French Crown Jewels were on display. They made off with eight pieces of the crown ...Show more
Considering their invincibility on the battlefield, the caliphate’s armies probably felt assured that they would remain the state’s number one priority. Al Mutawakkil’s purge of the administration only touched one member of the military hierarchy, and the caliph could not kill of ...Show more
Reading about this caliph’s reign in our sources is a bewildering experience: everything is simultaneously great and on the brink of destruction. Later histories pick apart developments in the administration throughout al Muktafi’s time in charge in search of a crack or culprit. ...Show more
With the confusion of Omar’s assassination and succession behind them, the Arabs were now ready to welcome the reign of yet another of their prophet’s close companions. In this episode we’ll talk more about the new caliph, and take a tour of his many and growing domains.