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The Arab-Islamic Conquests and the First Islamic States
Season 1
The issue of leadership following Muhammad’s death caused immediate tensions within the Islamic ummah even as the first four caliphs, the Rashidun, o…
2 years, 9 months ago
The Rise and Message of Islam
Season 1
While the Arabs of northern Arabia were uniting as a capable fighting force looking for opportunities to expand, the Byzantines and Sasanian Empires …
2 years, 9 months ago
The Margins of Empire
Season 1
The Kushan Empire in central Asia is an example of the diversity found beyond the Mediterranean during Late Antiquity. The Kushan Empire dominated tr…
2 years, 9 months ago
The Kingdoms of Aksum and Himyar
Season 1
Two kingdoms flourished on the periphery of the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires in Late Antiquity. In East Africa, Aksum oversaw a trade network with …
2 years, 9 months ago
The Byzantine Empire and Persia
Season 1
The two great superpowers of Late Antiquity, the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire, vied for supremacy in the fifth and sixth centuries. Thoug…
2 years, 9 months ago
The Eastward Shift
Season 1
After the political tumult of the third century, the emperor Constantine reinvigorated the Roman Empire by establishing a new capital in Constantinop…
2 years, 9 months ago
North Africa’s Mediterranean and Trans-Saharan Connections
Season 1
From the earliest Phoenician forays across the sea in the first millennium BCE, North Africa played an increasingly prominent role in the trade-based…
2 years, 9 months ago
The Kingdom of Kush
Season 1
Long the center of prehistoric African civilization, the region of Nubia, between Aswan in southern Egypt and the confluence of the Blue and White Ni…
2 years, 10 months ago
The Emergence of Farming and the Bantu Migrations
The earliest evidence of plant domestication in Africa has been uncovered in three different areas: Egypt, the eastern Sahara, and West Africa. In Eg…
2 years, 10 months ago
Africa’s Geography and Climate
Season 1
Geography played a critical role in the development of early human civilization in Africa. Climate conditions such as temperatures and rainfall dicta…
2 years, 10 months ago