/r/MiddleEastHistory
/r/MiddleEastHistory is for anything related to Middle Eastern history, from the earliest civilizations of the Fertile Crescent to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the modern era, along with anything in between! Book and article recommendations, maps, primary sources, pictures, text posts, archaeological findings, paintings, manuscripts, sculptures, architecture-- they're all welcome!
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This subreddit is for anything related to Middle Eastern history, from the earliest civilizations of the Fertile Crescent to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the modern era, along with anything in between! Book and article recommendations, maps, primary sources, pictures, text posts, archaeological findings, paintings, manuscripts, sculptures, architecture-- they're all welcome!
New to /r/MiddleEastHistory? Please take a moment and consult the rules of this subreddit and read the introduction meta thread.
Rules
Religious intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, and general bigoted behavior will not be tolerated (basically, follow reddiquette)
Please try to source your material. It is not required, but if someone asks for a source, you should be able to cite your statements.
Memes, modern politics, non-historical gifs, etc-- keep them in their respective subreddits.
/r/MiddleEastHistory
If anyone's interested comment, DM me, or both! It doesn't have to be political. Art, culture, or any other type of news stories work just as well.
At first i thought it was a Celtic symbol, but i was told it looks more like a Middle Eastern symbol. Does anyone know what it is and what it means?
Good overview of development of Kurdish nationalism from ancient times to the 1950s. musingsoniraq.blogspot .com
How was life shaped in Chouf during the last 1000 years? My main interest in this question is not the politics themselves but the way everything shaped the life of the people there in terms of mentality, life experience , ARCHITECTURE, the materials used and urbanism. Also any book recommendation is much appreciated. Thank you!
This is a surprisingly good anthology on the Gulf War. Plenty of Arab writers and a wide range of topics covered beyond just the actual conflict. musingsoniraq.blogspot .com
I mean The Crusades as a whole barely killed 2 million in the almost 3 centuries it was waged and was mostly a sideshow in the grand scheme of things esp in Europe.
The 30 Years War on the otherhand killed at least 4 million people with typical estimates reaching over 8 million (with the highest numbers even surpassing World War 1's total death rates) and that is just deaths from battles and fighting alone and does not count deaths from famines and diseases esp near the final years of the war (and afterwards), An entire country that would become Germany today was destroyed to the ground and so many European nations was bankrupted. In particular Sweden (who was a great power on the verge of becoming a superpower) and esp Spain (the premier superpower of the time and would lose all the gold and silver it gained from Latin America because they spent almost all of it on the war).
The war ultimately destroyed the Vatican's hold on Europe and even in nations where Catholicism dominated the culture so much as to be indistinguishable from Romanism such as Italy marked a sharp decease in Church prestige and gradual rise of secular influences.
So much of the Constitution and Bill of Rights of America was created in fear of the tyranny of the Catholic Church coming from this war and the patterns of the Protestant revolutions.
Yet the 30 Years War (and the wars of the Protestant Reformation in general) is never brought up as the focal point of holy wars. While the Crusades is seen as the embodiment of religious fanaticism and sacred wars despite not even really impacting even the Middle Eastern kingdoms of its time period.
Don't get me started on the war on the Anglo Saxons, Portugal's conquest of Goa, Islamic invasion of the Sassinids, and other even more obscure conflicts.
How did the Crusades get the reputation of THE HOLY WAR by which all others are measured by? It should be the 30 Years War since Europe was literally shaped by it esp Western secularism and individualism and the American principle of Freedom of Religion was based all around fear of the Rome's tyranny!
New book review. The Farhud was an attack upon Baghdad's Jews in 1941. That's not what this book is about however. musingsoniraq.blogspot .com
New book review about Gertrude Bell's personal and political life. musingsoniraq.blogspot .com