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The Muslim invaders exploded out of the Arabian peninsula and made huge gains in Egypt and Mesopotamia in a very short period of time. Did the Byzantines and Sassanians have any idea about the looming Muslim threat? Or were the invasions completely unexpected?

Admit it: you've had that amazing moment where a primary source makes you burst out laughing, only to realize you can't share the joke with anyone because either it's not actually funny in context, or because explaining the proper context would take too long and you are a responsible historian who only ever explains things in-depth, comprehensive, and supported by current academic research.

TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY.

Ground rules:

1. You must provide the quote and its source

2. You must NOT explain the context beyond speaker, date-ish, text

3. Limit two per customer

Next week: Betrayals, the more personal and bitter, the better!

Why not actual african religions, which seem more in line with most slaves actual heritage?

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Hey y'all,

I'm Breton and I'm looking to learn more about the History of my home region. I know the times between when the Romans took leave ca. 4th-5th centuries and the 10th century are supposed to be 'dark' i.e. there is a severe lack of reliable written sources and it's difficult to know much about what happened then.

Still, I would like to know as much as possible. I have in my possession interesting old books like La Bretagne des saints et des rois which are mostly chronicles and old-style, narrative hagiographies and commentaries thereof. I'd like some more 'modern' historiographical takes on the history of Brittany -- something like Bloch would have written should he have cared about the matter (or someone from the Annales school, or cultural history, or even a comparative toponymy approach between Britain and Brittany, etc.)

I can read in English, French and German (who knows). Ironically I cannot read Breton.

Does someone have some pointers for me? :)

Many thanks

Have a very pleasant day!

TGLAF

For example, Borobudur and Prambanan are massive temples in Java Indonesia. And the Shailendras that constructed them were a maritime power across Indonesia in the 9th century. It seems Australia is so close to Indonesia, and so close to so many large cultures but was relatively unfounded unexplored and unsettled by the time Europeans arrived. Did any of these large cultures attempt to build cities in Australia? And if they chose not to, why?

President Lincoln famously stated that he sent Federal troops to suppress the rebellion as a means to preserve the Union, and that freeing the slaves was not his aim at the outbreak of hostilities. Obviously, the elimination of slavery seems to have moved up his list of priorities by the time he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but that was almost two years after the first shots were fired.

Those first two years included some of the bloodiest battles in American history. What was so urgent about preserving the Union that Lincoln was willing to tolerate those kind of casualties? I can find a lot of reasons for why the South wanted to leave, but it's hard to get a simple answer about why the North didn't simply let them.

As said in the title, my husband and I discovered that his grandfather was involved in specialized WWII intelligence work and was extremely highly praised in multiple documents from highly ranked military members. There is some classified information pertaining to the central intelligence agency in it's infancy in the 40's. There are also some letters that seem to be hiding codes. We want to find out more information about these inherited documents. Who should we be looking to talk to?