Category Archives: Uncategorized

10th century Pottery

Having never been a potter myself, I could never understand why archeologists seemed to assume that some tribe or region made the same kind of pottery over and over. They name prehistoric cultures that way: the Grey Ware culture, the … Continue reading

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Baghdad of legend

The Abbasid dynasty endowed a scholars’ center in Baghdad; its first work was to collect and translate the Iranian books sitting in local libraries. We don’t know at what point they began to translate the Persian storybook that became the … Continue reading

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Baghdad

As payoff for Persian support, the Abbasid rulers agreed to relocate the administrative capital to Persian territory, instead of Damascus. The old capital of Ctesiphon may have been starting to fall apart, but in any case, they decided to build … Continue reading

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Ashoura and the Battle of Karbala

Just a news article about violence during the Shi’ite festival. They re-enact the Battle in a ritual way (not very accurately) and whip themselves bloody to show their grief for the deaths of Mohammed’s family. http://www.timesofisrael.com/at-least-41-killed-in-attacks-during-iraq-shiite-ritual/  

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By request: what was the world like, the last time a Pope resigned?

1415: the Battle of Agincourt, the burning of Jan Hus, and the only other resignation of a pope. The Medieval Warm Period was over; Arctic ice was growing, making Greenland harder to reach and cutting back cod and herring fishing. … Continue reading

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All Things Medieval

A few years ago, I wrote a book for Greenwood Press (ABC-CLIO) titled All Things Medieval. The purpose of this blog is to collect and organize snips of information based on my book research, but repackaged to entertain my friends … Continue reading

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