Al amir: Did you mean...?

Abolqasem Ferdowsi (l. c. 940-1020 CE, also given as Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi Tusi, Firdawsi, Firdausi) is the author of the Shahnameh (The Persian Book of Kings), one of the greatest works of world literature and the national epic of Iran. He...

Persian literature derives from a long oral tradition of poetic storytelling. The first recorded example of this tradition is the Behistun Inscription of Darius I (the Great, r. 522-486 BCE), carved on a cliff-face c. 522 BCE during the period...

An illustration from the Khamsa (Quintet) by the Indian poet Amir Khusrau (1253–1325). The scene shows (on the right) Alexander the Great, who in Khusrau’s work travels extensively, including in search of spritiual enlightenment. The Greek...

A game of shatranj, section of a miniature painting in the Baysunghur Shahnameh illustrated manuscript by Mulla ʿAlī & Amīr Ḵalīl, 1430. Depicted here is a 6th-century game of shatranj, a predecessor to contemporary chess, being demonstrated...

Timur (1336-1405), also known as Tamerlane, Temür, or Timur Leng, was the founder of the Timurid Empire (1370-1507), which had its heartlands in modern-day Uzbekistan and capital at Samarkand. A Muslim Turkic chieftain who claimed Mongol...

Tamar was the queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213 CE. She is considered one of the greatest of medieval Georgia's monarchs, and she presided over its greatest territorial expansion, taking advantage of the decline of other major powers in...

Jordan is a country in the Near East bordered by Israel, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. The country's name comes from the Arabic Al Urdun, referencing a fortified site but also meaning "prominence", though various sources also claim the name...

Sultan Razia (Raziyyat-Ud-Dunya Wa Ud-Din, r. 1236-1240) was one of the few women rulers in the Indian subcontinent and the first and only female Sultan of Delhi. Despite facing Herculean challenges in a patriarchal society, Razia distinguished...

Throughout the 15th century, the Portuguese Crown yearned for a piece of the Far Eastern spice trade. For centuries this trade had been dominated by the Venetians who obtained pepper, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon from their Middle...

Dive into the Epic of Gilgamesh, and follow the king of Uruk on a series of dangerous quests as he searches for immortality. In 1849, in the ancient city of Nineveh in Iraq, archaeologists sifted through dusty remains, hoping to find records...