I'm trying to understand how religion was taught to the non-nobles in the pre-Vatican-II Catholic world. To my knowledge at the end of the Roman empire the average poor farmer could understand church Latin, but as the romance languages diverged at some point this was no longer the case.

So Islam is set to have started around 600 AD according to my Muslim boyfriend. He states that Muhammad was the final prophet, and Jesus and Moses were also considered prophets.

Moses was the prophet during the Egyptian empire, but, does this mean Islam was a religion by then? Was it already formalized or would it become that after the Prophet? If it was around, did Egyptians follow Islam or were they not religious at all?

Surely people in nations like England, France, and the various kingdoms that made up what is now Germany, Italy and Spain would have heard of this terrifying menace from beyond the known world, sweeping across the Near East and then proceeding to rape and pillage Eastern Europe.

Did the nations of Western and Central Europe feel like they were a very serious threat? Was there even perhaps contact established with the Mongol hordes? What was the general consensus among the European nations that were less at risk than the likes of Russia, Poland and Hungary of the Mongols?

When Jesus was twelve he was found in the Temple talking with the elders. He was then a minister at thirty years old. So where was he during those other years in between? What did Jesus do before he became a minister?

Are there any members here with a PhD in History who chose not to pursue a conventional TT track job in academia and instead took up a job that requires doing research and pays well? I can think of museums but my guess is that unless one planned that during graduate school and took a minor in Museum Studies, it might require one to re-enroll in a Museum Studies program after their PhD for a career change. Are there other careers that requires research skills and doing historical research but does not involve a teaching component? I would love to hear more about such alternatives.

I was talking with my 13-year old daughter about the European discovery of the Americas and we began to wonder: is there an Asian equivalent? I.e. a person who sailed across the Pacific, found land, and returned to tell about it?

Edit: thanks everyone for great replies. I learned a lot:)

I know this is extremely vague and that's because I need help getting started on a section of history that don't much about.

I would prefer something more general the rise and fall of recent superpowers But I don't mind more detailed sources either.

(Doesn't need to be a source, just an outline of major events and keywords that I can use as a stepping stone would be just as good if not better)

I’m currently reading Arabian Nights and especially in some of the earlier stories (Lyons’ English translation), characters mix wine with water. Reminds me of similar things in Homer. Was that done to dilute the wine because it was strongly flavored (or maybe it tasted bad)? To reduce alcohol consumption? What? To try and disinfect iffy water?

I’ve recently become interested in Japanese politics and was wondering if there was any books on all of the prime ministers or a book detailing the history of the Liberal Democratic Party. Also books or articles about Hayato Ikeda would be great as well.

Thanks in advance!

At various times, the late Yuan/early Ming novel Water Margin mentions medicine peddlers who attract customers with shows of arms. One such person is met by Nine Dragons Shi Jin early in the novel, and another example is Sickly Tiger Xue Yong, who is encountered by Song Jiang at the end of chapter 36. This is mentioned matter-of-factly, suggesting that it would be a familiar sight to any contemporary reader. There's no obvious connection between medicine and skill with weapons, so how did this practice get started? When did it die out?

For context"

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If the reader, after contemplating the lively, noisy scene being played out in every part of the square, will now turn his eyes on to that ancient half-Gothic, half-Romanesque house of the Tour-Roland, which stands at the western corner of the quayside, he will observe in the angle of the façade a large public breviary, richly illuminated, protected from the rain by a little canopy, and from thieves by a grille, which, however, leaves room to turn the pages. Besides this breviary is a narrow, pointed window, closed by two intersecting iron bars looking on to the square, the only opening which admits a little fresh air and daylight to a small doorless cell, set at ground level in the thickness of the old house's wall, and filled with a peace made all the more profound, a silence made all the more mournful by the fact that a public square, the noisiest and busiest in Paris, teems and yells all around.

This cell had been famous in Paris for nearly three centuries, ever since Madame Rolande of the Tour-Roland, in mourning for her father who had died on the Crusades, had had it hollowed out from the wall of her own house and there shut herself up for ever, returning of her palace nothing but this dwelling, of which the door was walled up and the window open, winter and summer; all the rest she gave to the poor and to God. The desolate lady had in fact waited twenty years for death in this anticipated tomb, praying night and day for her father's soul, sleeping on ashes, without so much as a stone for a pillow, wearing a black sack, and subsisting only on whatever bread and water compassionate passers-by left on her window ledge, thus receiving charity after she had exercised it. At her death, at the moment of passing over to another tomb, she had bequeathed this one in perpetuity to women in affliction, mothers, widows, or daughters, who had much praying to do for others or for themselves, and wished to be buried alive in great grief or great penitence.

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If they exist I'd love to see one here in Paris.

We know that after Christianity took hold in the Roman Empire, they did their level best to stamp out worship of the old gods, i.e., converting temples, appropriating traditions, etc. For how long after Christianity rose to dominate Western religion did the old Greek/Roman gods continue to be worshiped. Are there any modern faith traditions which are modern descendents of these mythologies or have practices coming from them (excepting Christianty's appropriation of the tree, etc.)?

Edit: just checking in after four really detailed comments have been left. This stuff is gold and why I love (mostly) lurking in this subreddit. Thank you all for all this information and corrections to my assumptions.

I’m wondering if there’s a book out there covering in depth, a historical perspective of various attitudes toward raising and treatment toward children in various cultures and time periods.

The Guanche seem to be a largely forgotten people today, and very little information is available about their society. Did Spanish attitudes towards Native Canarians affect their later attitudes towards Native Americans? Did the Spanish apply any lessons they had learned in the conquest of the Canaries towards their conquest of the Americas?

I know it's a bit of a generalized book request, but I'm interested in say, the period from circa 800 to 1400 (ending just a bit before the start of colonialism)... of feudal kingdoms, Muslim-Christian religious conflicts, etc, you get the point.

Crusades, the Reconquista, the Viking raiding, etc, are the specific topics I'm interested in, etc, but I'd also be open to history of specific countries like, say, the Venetian Republic, biographies of important people, social or cultural histories, comparative volumes, primary sources, general overviews, essay collections, etc, whatever.

I'm especially interested in primary sources, social and cultural histories - how the people of the past lived, their social and cultural perceptions regarding gender, religion, race, etc, and their own thoughts on their world. That

A caveat; I am mostly looking for European and Middle Eastern history - not that interested in what was going on in, say, Asia-east-of-Persia or Africa-south-of-the-Sahara at the time, unless 1. the books in question are, say, comparative and have something to do with Europe and the Middle East, 2. The book in question is really good, or discipline-defining, or revolutionary, or some combination of the three.

Anyone got any good suggestions?

so recently i was playing atilla tw online and brought a pike army. my opponent brought some byzantine crossbows and archers and shreded me. that made me wonder why were pikes so effective ? like during alexanders time he used them to great effect but couldent the persians just shoot arrows at them until they died ? its not like they could carry a big shield like hoplites to protect themselvs ?

Good morning,

as a history nerd (with a focus on Ancient China and the 20th century, so this topic here is outside of my area of expertise) and gamer I stumbled upon the game "Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnought" and began playing it yesterday. A certain set of missions reminded me of a question that interested me for quite some time already and that I never found solid answers for.

We all know that during the American Civil War both monitor and casemate ironclads were used - for example USS Monitor itself and CSS Virginia (as an example for the latter type). Now monitors have a low profile, rotating gun turrets and a smaller crew while casemate ironclads have a higher profile, fixed gun positions and need a larger crew. I am no expert in naval history but it seems to me like monitors are much more feasible than casemate ironclads. Still, European navies used the latter type during the waning 19th century and even developed a successor, the centre-battery ship.

So my question is this - are there any major advantages of casemate ironclads over monitors?

Thank you all in advance!