Hammurabi’s Code and the Origins of Legal Systems
Reading Time: 18 minutes Hammurabi’s Code- inscribed on a stone monument that helped create a certain idea of law: not as a private…
Reading Time: 18 minutes 
Reading Time: 18 minutes 25+ of the Best Books on African History
Reading Time: 11 minutes The best books on African history have the power to transform the way you see the world. Africa is…
Inside Ancient Greek Secret Societies: Myths, Rituals, and the Evidence
Reading Time: ` minutes Greek secret societies are a perennial source of fascination because they promise to show us a side of Greece…
20 Persistent Myths About Medieval Life Debunked
Reading Time: 18 minutes Movies are full of them. Meme pages thrive on them. Myths about medieval life contain a lot of misinformation,…
The Umayyad Conquest and the Birth of Muslim Iberia
Reading Time: 29 minutes In 711, a small landing initiated the Umayyad Conquest, a process that would change the Iberian Peninsula for centuries. If…
What Caused the Fall of Rome? 15 Key Reasons Explained
Reading Time: 20 minutes The fall of Rome didn’t happen in a day. There was a year. Then five years. A decade of…
How Mansa Musa Flooded Cairo with Gold—and What Happened Next
Reading Time: 18 minutes In the 1320s, Mansa Musa made his way to Cairo, leading a caravan so laden with gold that centuries…
How the Almoravids Shaped Modern Islam in Africa
Reading Time: 19 minutes The Almoravids started as a desert reform movement. They ended up presiding over an empire extending from the Maghreb,…
The Dramatic Downfall: Lessons from the Ottoman Empire’s Decline
Reading Time: 24 minutes For centuries, the Ottoman Empire spanned three continents and connected diverse populations, religions, and languages. Yet its demise was…
Life in Iran Before and After the 1979 Revolution
Reading Time: 22 minutes The Iranian Revolution of 1979 marked a defining before-and-after for many Iranians. Far more than just a date on…
