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Category: Middle East

By The Generalist Posted on February 17, 2022February 16, 2022

Medieval cat poetry

Pangur Bán was an Irish monk’s cat in 9th century Germany; we know this cat’s name because the monk wrote a poem about him. Even though this poem was written more than a thousand years ago, Pangur Bán was not the first named cat in history.

Categories: Ancient history, Animals, Europe, Literature, Medieval history, Middle East
By The Generalist Posted on January 26, 2022January 25, 2022

War elephants vs. bird army

The 105th surah of the Quran relates a battle outside Mecca between Yemeni war elephants and a flock of birds.

Categories: Animals, Medieval history, Middle East, Military, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on November 16, 2021January 25, 2023

Saint Pontius Pilate

The Ethiopian and Coptic Orthodox Churches hold that Pontius Pilate, the governor who condemned Jesus Christ to death, later converted to Christianity himself, and they revere Pilate as a saint.

Categories: Ancient history, Medieval history, Middle East, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on November 11, 2021November 10, 2021

The author of Aladdin

Neither Aladdin nor Ali Baba were in the original Thousand and One Nights (aka the Arabian Nights). The tales first appeared in the French translation, probably from a Syrian Christian storyteller named Hanna Diyab who lived in Paris from 1708 to 1710.

Categories: Early modern history, Europe, Literature, Middle East
By The Generalist Posted on November 5, 2021November 4, 2021

Largest cemetery

Wadi al-Salaam, the Valley of Peace, in Iraq is the largest cemetery in the world; more than five million people are buried there.

Categories: Architecture, Medieval history, Middle East, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on August 16, 2021January 25, 2023

Science wars: Non-periodic crystals

Up until 1982, all crystals were believed to be, by definition, periodic. But then an Israeli materials scientist discovered something strange…

Categories: 20th century history, Middle East, North & Central America, Physics & chemistry
By The Generalist Posted on July 1, 2021June 30, 2021

Dragon blood island

Socotra, the alien island wedged between the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, is home to the dragon blood tree: a source of dye, paint, medicine, varnish, and magic.

Categories: Ancient history, Health & medicine, Middle East, Plants
By The Generalist Posted on June 17, 2021January 25, 2023

Triple clarinet

The Sardinian launeddas, also known as a triplepipe, sounds like someone playing three clarinets at the same time.

Categories: Ancient history, Europe, Middle East, Music
By The Generalist Posted on May 26, 2021January 25, 2023

Houdini and Lovecraft and the mummies

The escape artist Harry Houdini and the author H. P. Lovecraft collaborated on a “true” Egyptian horror story.

Categories: 20th century history, Literature, Middle East, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on April 1, 2021April 28, 2021

Portugal vs. Egypt in India

How about that time that the Egyptian Mamluks, with secret support from Venice, battled the Portuguese in the sea off the coast of India?

Categories: Early modern history, History, Middle East, Military, Places, Politics & law, South Asia, The oceans
By The Generalist Posted on March 29, 2021January 25, 2023

Eight years on the Suez Canal

In 1967, fifteen ships and their crews were trapped on the Suez Canal because of the Six-Day War. The ships would remain there for the next eight years.

Categories: 20th century history, History, Middle East, Military, Places, Society
By The Generalist Posted on March 26, 2021January 25, 2023

Salt men

Most accidental mummies are preserved by heat, cold, or peat bogs. But in the Chehrabad mines in Iran, the bodies of ancient miners were buried in salt.

Categories: Ancient history, History, Middle East, Places
By The Generalist Posted on February 24, 2021January 25, 2023

Relic souvenirs

In early Christian tradition, the power of saints’ relics could be transferred from object to object by a simple touch.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Europe, Fashion & design, History, Medieval history, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on February 4, 2021May 8, 2021

Solomon’s laser

The shamir is described in the Talmud and Midrash as a tool capable of slicing through solid stone, iron, and diamond – but was it a worm, a laser, or a radioactive rock?

Categories: Architecture, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on January 5, 2021January 25, 2023

Reconstructed ancestor language

Proto-Indo-European is thought to be the ancestor language of English, Latin, Greek, French, Russian, Urdu, Sanskrit, Farsi, and dozens of others. But what did it sound like?

Categories: Europe, History, Language, Middle East, North & Central Asia, Places, Prehistory, South Asia
By The Generalist Posted on December 19, 2020April 28, 2021

Cursed stone city

Al-Khazneh, the temple carved out of a cliff in Petra, is the most famous remnant of the Nabataean Kingdom. But to its south lies Hegra, the cursed stoneland city.

Categories: Ancient history, Architecture, Economics & business, History, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief

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