The Ottomans, the Safavids, and the War for t...

Every year, new archaeological discoveries claim to rewrite what we think we knew about the ancient Americas, but how much can we trust the initial reports we see? Professor Shane Miller, now of the University of Alabama, joins me again to place the White Sands footprints and oth ...  Show more

The rise of the Roman Republic was built on conquest and war, but also on the massively expanding economy of Italy as a whole and Rome in particular. What was it like to live through that, and what did an expanding economy actually mean?Patrick launched a brand-new history show! ...  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

The state of Yemen in 2023 is precarious. After the Arab Spring revolution descended into civil war, the Houthis have cemented their power over large swathes of Northern Yemen, while the traditional ruling parties have fractured and, in many cases, disintegrated. In this final ep ...  Show more

How did the great divide within Islam, the split between Sunni and Shia, develop? We trace how the great 16th century confrontation between the Ottomans of Turkey and the Safavids of Iran cemented what had previously been a much more porous division. Iran has been a Shia country ...  Show more

1979 was the year that set the Islamic world on the path to today. In Iran, the revolution established the nation as a theocracy that sought to defend Shi'ism across the world. In Saudi Arabia, the siege of the Holy Mosque led to the nation embracing a more radical Sunni Islam th ...  Show more