A couple of years ago I blew up my site while upgrading a WordPress plugin. The hosts of my site were useless in helping me recover my content. So a lot of thanks go to my awesome cousin Aditya for his hard work in restoring this site and retrieving my long verbose posts. There is …
Given the iconoclastic nature of Islam, images on Islamic coins are rare, but yet not unknown. Many of them were inspired by classical representations (like the bronzes of the Artuquids, Zangids and other Atabegs in the region) or survived when the coinage in question succeeded a pre-Islamic variety (like the Arab-Byzantine and Arab-Sassanid series or …
From Anatolia to Sindh: the rapid spread of money in the middle ages Read More »
The acquisition of empire ultimately spelled doom for the Roman Republic. After destroying Carthage, conquering Macedonia and thrashing the Seleucids the Roman Republic ruled the Mediterranean world. The remaining states that retained their independence lay supine before Roman might. One king even willed his kingdom to the Romans on his death. However, the acquisition of …
This day in history – The Ides of March 44, B.C. – The Assassination of Julius Caesar. Read More »
300: Rise of an Empire is replete with so many head slap worthy whoppers, that I had to stop before they resulted in a concussion. I went into the theater expecting that history would be shredded…the result surpassed my exceptions. The end product easily surpasses the collection of whoppers in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. It is …
300: Rise of an Empire – history infantilized into fiction (with spoilers) Read More »
Politics in the Roman Republic was a brutal business. The rivalry between the patricians was accentuated by the class divisions between patricians and plebeians. Yet these were manageable so long as the Republic was confined to Italy. However, Rome’s victories in the Punic Wars with Carthage and the ensuing wars with Macedonia and the Seleucid …
A death of a middle aged woman in St. Petersburg changed history. In 1762 towards the end of the Seven Years War, Prussia was on the verge of collapse. Having lost his last Baltic port and with his army almost annihilated, Frederick the Great at times seriously contemplated suicide. The consequences for Prussia were dire. Starting with the Great …
This day in history – January 5, 1762 – The Miracle of the House of Brandenburg Read More »
It was one of the few heartwarming events to occur in the bloody quagmire of the trenches of the Western Front. Word War I was originally supposed to be a war that would be over by Christmas. By Christmas it was clear that the fighting was not going to end any time soon. On …
This day in history – December 25, 1914 – Christmas Truces across the Western Front Read More »
The Norman Conquest is considered an epochal moment in English history – with good reason. Until the conquest England was firmly a part of the Scandinavian cultural sphere – four English Kings in the eleventh century had been Danish. The Normans may have started out as Viking marauders but by 1066 had been absorbed into …
This day in History – December 25, 1066 – William the Bastard is crowned King of England Read More »
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 the guns finally fell silent across the battlefields of Europe. It had been termed the “War to end all Wars” and until the onset of the next round of bloodletting a generation later would be referred to as “The Great War.” …
This Day in History – November 11, 1918 – All Quiet on the Western Front Read More »
Today is Hangul Day in Korea. In commemorating their alphabet, Koreans acknowledge the remarkable script designed exclusively to fit the language. Like many countries in East Asia, Korea was heavily influenced by Chinese culture. However, the Chinese characters were cumbersome when applied to Korean. As a result only in elites were literate. To solve this …
This day in History – October 9, 1446 – The Hangul alphabet is published in Korea Read More »