Sublime

An agrarian surplus sustained urban elites and their elaborate high culture. In the towns, an artisan class of legendary skill had sprung up to cater for these elites’ material demands.

Islamic rule under the early khalifas (caliphs) depended on tribal garrisons watching over the unreliable townsmen. It was not a lasting solution. Under urban conditions, tribal unity weakened. There was no aristocracy to apply a feudal remedy, and the problem of government was control of the towns. The answer was found in recruiting military

AT THE DAWN of the eighteenth century, around the time Europe was beginning to take notice of the vast natural resources waiting to be tapped across the Mediterranean, the sacred land that had given birth to Islam and reared it in its infancy fell under the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, though the Caliph allowed the Sharif of Mecca—a

Sher Shah Suri’s reign as Emperor of the Sur Empire marked something of a watershed in Indian history. While he was clearly a successful military leader, he was probably better known for his many administrative reforms. One of his first acts, to mark his reign, was to introduce a new form of coinage. His silver coin was to be the first Indian rupee

In the nineteenth century a particularly rich inhumation cemetery was partially excavated just east of the village of Sarre in the Isle of Thanet, in east Kent. The Wantsum Channel, which separated Thanet from the mainland until the end of the Middle Ages was, in Bede’s day, traversable on foot in just two places.39 Sarre (from the Brythonic word

Hatshepsut built a grand temple at Deir el-Bahri, complete with wonderful bas-reliefs which illustrate and document one of her greatest achievements, a trading voyage to Punt, a country on the African coast below the Red Sea. Intricately captioned, the carved vignettes detail not just what the people said (“Watch your step!” is carved over the

The Nizam’s father, Nizam ul-Mulk, had founded the semi-independent state of Hyderabad out of the disintegrating southern provinces of the Mughal Empire in the years following 1724.

Afterwards [they] have permission to approach but seldom sit down. There is more state and pomp here than I ever saw at [the Mughal Emperor] Shah Alam’s durbar. Agreeably to the custom of the Nizam’s family he [Nizam Ali Khan] never smokes but swallows large balls of paun which as he has no teeth he cannot chew; he drinks a great deal of coffee, &

The Ottoman takeover of Mecca and Medina did not simply represent more land and revenue for the empire. It made Selim the “Protector of the Holy Cities,” the caliph—the undisputed leader of the Muslim world.