Episode 82: The rise of al Muqtadir

For the very first time in Arab history, a child became the umma’s caliph. The 13 year old had not yet left his royal harem and was totally under his mother’s control. She used her influence over al Muqtadir to to extend her personal wealth and authority. It was a fundamentally c ...  Show more

My personal experiences and opinions on a subject close to my heart and fate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xottY-7m3k At first, I found YouTube's needless tag about the Holocaust on this video to be merely insulting. I realized with time it's far more insidious than that; it ...  Show more

After the Fall of Constantinople, the Ottomans became the most powerful dynasty in existence. But the great empire began to decline, and in the early 20th century, a leader named Talaat and a group of radical nationalists worked to remove the ineffectual sultan and restore the Ot ...  Show more

A story of great myth and of huge historical significance, the foundation of Baghdad is a fundamental episode in the development of Islam. The Umayyad Caliphate, the first great Islamic empire, stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the borders of China; no dynasty had ever preside ...  Show more

Hadrian's reign got off to a rough start following the political murders of four ex-consuls. The new Emperor would eventually settle in though and set out on his first grand tour of the Empire in 121. 

After conquering much of Eurasia, Timur showed no interest in building institutions and so after his death, like the Mongol Empire before it, the Timurid Empire soon fragmented and collapsed. However, some of Timur’s grandchildren took over parts of the Empire and ushered in eras ...  Show more