Harun al-Rashid: Did you mean...?

The Ilkhanate (or Ilqanate, 1260-1335 CE) was that part of the Mongol Empire (1206-1368 CE) which mostly covered what is today Iran and parts of Turkmenistan, Turkey, Iraq, Armenia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Established by the Mongol...

The Rosetta Stone is an incomplete grey and pink granodiorite stela dating from 196 BCE which presents a priestly decree concerning King Ptolemy V of Egypt. The text is in three different versions: Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek...

The Assassins (aka Nizari Ismailis), were a heretical group of Shiite Muslims who were powerful in Persia and Syria from the 11th century CE until their defeat at the hands of the Mongols in the mid-13th century CE. Secure in their...

Gertrude Bell (l. 1868-1926) was an archaeologist, travel writer, explorer, and political administrator responsible for creating the borders of the countries of the Near East after World War I and, especially, for the foundation...

He who saw everything in the broad-boned earth, and knew what was to be known, Who had experienced what there was, and had become familiar with all things. The Epic of Gilgamesh. The...

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. (Mark Twain) Darband-i Basara (the Pass of Basara) is a narrow natural gorge which transects the anticlines of the upper part of the Qaradagh Mountain...

An illustration of Mongol warriors carrying out an execution. They are wearing the traditional Mongol deel robe. 14th century CE. (From Rashid-ad-Din's Gami' at-tawarih)

The Rosetta Stone is an incomplete grey and pink granodiorite stela dating from 196 BCE which presents a priestly decree concerning King Ptolemy V of Egypt. The text is in three different versions: Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek...

A painted manuscript of the "Compendium of Chronicles" by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani (1247 – 1318 CE). This illumination from a mid 15th Century manscript depicts the siege of Baghdad in 1258 by the army of Hulegu Khan (r. 1256...

This is a zoomed-in detail of the upper part of the Rosetta stone showing the hieroglyphic inscription. The Rosetta Stone is a large, mostly complete fragment of a grey-pink granodiorite stela. A decree was...