Catalog Search Results
2061) Mongols Sack Baghdad
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
This lecture narrates the calamity that befell the world’s largest, most prosperous, and most celebrated city. First trace the rise of the Mongols, a fierce and most destructive ancient empire. Then follow their conquest of the Abbasids of Baghdad, culminating in the horrific siege that effectively ended the Islamic Golden Age.
2062) Qairouan University
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
The world’s first university was founded by a visionary Muslim woman in the city of Fes, Morocco. Learn how this groundbreaking institution made advanced education available to all. Assess its influence in the Middle East, discover its unrivalled impact on European learning, and examine the life and work of one of its most celebrated alumni.
2063) Ottoman Empire Rises
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
The dazzling empire of the Ottomans was the longest-lasting empire in Middle Eastern history. Learn about the dream of Osman, the Ottomans’ founder, which impelled him to establish what became a transcontinental superpower. Grasp what allowed the Ottomans to thrive and to spread across Anatolia, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Secure as a major player on the world stage, the U.S. can now look inward and focus on the intra-national linguistic and cultural diversity that’s been there since English speakers first arrived on the American continent. Discover that regional dialect differentiation is actually increasing, not receding, even in the Internet age, and consider the development of English as it continues to spread across the world.
2065) The Egyptian Mamluks
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
The Mamluks were an unprecedented phenomenon—a community of slaves who became rulers. Investigate the origins of the Mamluks, and uncover how this elite warrior class took power in Egypt. Learn about the Mamluks’ empire, their meritocratic system, and how they defeated a vast army that had never been beaten in battle: the Mongols.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Examine the role of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and uncover why it entered the war on the side of Germany and Austro-Hungary. Consider the scope of the conflict in the Middle East, the Arab Revolt (arguably the most significant Middle Eastern campaign of the war), and the emergence of Arab nationalism.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Begin with a big-picture overview of the American English dialect map, asking as we explore: What is the difference between a language, a dialect, and an accent? Discover the intricate rules governing all linguistic systems, and consider how and why some varieties of language become valued standards and others are stigmatized.
2068) The Fatimids of Cairo
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Follow the rise of the Fatimids—history’s only Shia caliphate—in political and religious opposition to the Baghdad-based Abbasids. Witness the founding of Cairo as the new Fatimid capital, and examine the enlightened leadership of the 4th and 5th Fatimid caliphs, under whom Cairo became the most important city in the Islamic world.
2069) Umayyad Exile in Cordoba
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Discover the golden age of Cordoba as a global center of education and culture. Learn how the displaced Umayyad caliphate established a kingdom in exile in Cordoba, whose rulers oversaw remarkable advancements in lifestyle and manners, magnificent architecture and urban development, and the cultivation of the best available Muslim, Christian, and Jewish scholarship.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Our journey continues with the westward expansion of American English, as the New England dialect spreads across the North, the South extends to the Southwest, and people in the middle increasingly intermingle. Along the way, dialect mixing and leveling lead to increasing standardization, or at least the ideal of a single, uniform standard, and "General American English"is born. But where is it, and who speaks it?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Much media coverage, however, is incomplete at best, failing to take account of either the complexities or the historical background of this pivotal region. For most of us, the real story of the Middle East remains untold. What made this crucial geopolitical area what it is today? What forces and factors underlie what we read in the news, and what drives the current challenges the Middle East both faces and poses? In coming to terms with the present...
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Grasp why the storied city of Constantinople had great strategic importance to the burgeoning Ottoman Empire. Witness the fiercely contested siege of the city, revealing the Ottoman offensive by both land and sea. Take account of how the city’s fall arguably marked the end of both the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
The Suez Canal, which halved the sailing distance from Europe to India, changed the course of Middle Eastern and world history. Examine the events behind the building of the canal, and reveal the amazing feat of its construction. Assess the economics of the endeavor, a story of foreign debt that would cost Egypt its independence.
2074) Suleiman the Magnificent
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Take the measure of the sultan Suleiman’s extraordinary vision, through which he expanded and consolidated the Ottoman Empire, engendered a bureaucratic system and a unified legislative code, and commissioned monumental architecture. Learn also of his great love for his favorite wife, Roxelana, perhaps the most influential female political figure in Ottoman history.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Explore the economic and political factors that sparked the brutal French invasion of Ottoman Algeria. Follow the events of the ensuing occupation, and examine the war of resistance led by the religious leader Abd al-Qadir. Observe how the invasion marked a major shift in European relations with the Middle East.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Investigate the phenomenon of the British East India Company, a militarized trading organization of astonishing power and reach. Learn about the Company’s seizure of the strategic Yemeni port of Aden, which became a trading center of global importance, heralding Britain’s century-spanning imperial presence in the Middle East.
2077) Second Siege of Vienna
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
The 1683 Ottoman siege of Vienna is often cited as a critical turning point in European history. Investigate the events leading to the siege and battle, witness the dramatic defense of the city under the Polish king Jan Sobieski, and examine both the legacy of the clash and historical misconceptions surrounding it.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
The main English dialect hubs in the new American colonies were centered on Jamestown, New England, and Philadelphia. See how these were influenced by contact with Native American languages, Spanish, French, Dutch, and the West African languages of slaves, and learn about the five stages of development English dialects typically undergo everywhere English is spoken in the world.
2079) Muslim Empires
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Consider the geographical region we call the Greater Middle East, and explore the range of nations and cultures that define it. Preview some of the remarkable historical turning points you’ll witness, encompassing conquests, political alliances, invasions, and the rise of Islam, as well as social, intellectual, and economic flowering of numerous kinds.
2080) Selim the Grim
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Investigate the achievements of this most fearsome and pivotal of Ottoman rulers. Learn how Selim vanquished the threatening Safavid Empire after violently wresting power from his father. Track his dramatic expansionist policy, tripling the Ottoman territories in less than a decade, and his defeat of the Egyptian Mamluks, becoming the first Ottoman Caliph.
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Try our Materials Request Service. Submit Request