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'Progressive' in terms of political movement.

Judging from the lens of modern 21st century thinking, how progressive is the treatment of women, socio-economic equality, and acceptance of new ideas/technology in 7th century Islamic Arabia compared to the rest of the world? How did Islamic reforms change their laws/social customs?

Edited for clarity

I wrote the FBI over 3 years ago with my FOIA, concerning a book about historical events in the US, from decades ago; the FBI was involved to an extent, and I assumed they might have useful material. (Additionally, as I'm not from the US, I can't, unfortunately, go around libraries to access microfiche files, etc., as part of the research, and an institution with such a vast catalogue of data available seemed worth a try).

In 2015, I received a letter from the FBI. It turned out that they did indeed have files that would be extremely useful for the book: in fact, there were many hundreds of pages and even multimedia that would be of great help.

I confirmed that I was very much interested in the files, and confirmed that the cost of duplicating would be fine. I sent the reply via a letter, not an e-mail - and, well, I've been waiting ever since. Last year, I e-mailed the FBI, asking if there was any way to know what the request's status was, but all I could find out was the automatic request status check on the fbi.gov site.

And since then, for almost 2 years now, my request's status has been: "The FBI's FOIPA Program has identified potential responsive information to your request(s) and awaits assignment to a Government Information Specialist (GIS) for further processing."

Obviously I know that there are many pages to copy in my request. I understand how swamped with FOIA requests they are, and how many are infuriatingly long to process, trivial, etc... but if you've had experience with successful FOIA requests, what did you do? Did you keep getting in touch, reminding of your existence, so to say - or even pestering them with "I'm still waiting" notes? (Something I'd prefer to avoid doing :)

In a nutshell, if you received your material, how long did you have to wait... and did you accelerate your request somehow?

Should I contact them again, via e-mail, via letters? Via phone or fax, perhaps? Or should I just keep checking the status page, wait patiently, and hope?

(I have begun writing the book since then, but the prospect of having so much useful material to improve it makes me jump in excitement... and the fact that I don't have any of it makes me sigh in exasperation.)

We're a small theater company and we have a recruitment underway, and we want to present the tasks involved as jobs from the medieval times. We've already found one for each job we're specifically looking for, but are they historically correct? Either way, even if they are or they're not, and you have a better idea, hit me up!

Fundraiser(a.k.a one who brings the money or writes the projects) - Treasurer

IT(a.k.a one who speaks with other worlds, this being virtual world) - Alchemist/Astronomer

Design(a.k.a one who makes the space pretty) - Gardener or Court Artist

Administrative(a.k.a one who keeps tabs of how money is spent) - King Counselor

PR(a.k.a one who speaks to the village and other castles) - Envoy, Herald, or maybe Jester?

Thanks!

In the current age of technology, I normally forget the date and maybe even day of the week sometimes unless I look at my phone. Did small towns/villages 500+ years ago keep track of dates/days of the week? Did the lay farmer or non-nobleman know on a day to day basis where in the calendar they were at the time? Who kept track of all this a long time ago?

Modern people often seem to conceive of the medieval view of the Pope as God's chosen representative, that no-one would ever question, during a time of brutal theological control. Of course, actually Kings in the Middle Ages, while pious Catholics, often disagreed with, argued with, and sometimes went to war against, the Pope. Now, I think that the doctrine of Papal Infallibility was actually a 19th century development? So, I wondered if medieval people more thought of the Pope the way Americans think of the President; the position itself holds legitimacy and respect, but the President may be bad at his job. How often did people criticise the Pope? Was it a normal thing to say "the Pope is wrong about X", and would that be something people were allowed to say publically by society and the local Church? If a priest said "I disagree with the Pope" would the local Bishop defrock him? Or, rather, would a priest not want to disagree with the Pope because he might get in trouble, or actually because to disagree with the Pope would be, in his mind, to disagree with God?

Could somebody summarize Warfare in terms of weaponry and tactics in Europe and the Middle East 1120-1130? With sources, please.

Did the local culture, available ingredients, etc of New Zealand and Australia prompt modification to either the types of food being eaten, or how they were cooked?

I am a pickle producer that grows (a lot!) of cucumbers and barrel cures them via fermentation. I am launching my business to stores this summer. I am looking for books or articles that detail forgotten recipes and techniques, not necessarily for cucumbers only. Very interested in German, Polish and Russian, Jewish information. I have only found two articles with my clumsy search terms, a recipe for potato cheese and a recipe for whole head barrel cured cabbage. Thank you dear Historians with any help you may be able to provide!

Specifically the scene where they are handing every other soldier a rifle and every other solder an ammunition clip.

Why if Stalingrad was so important were the Russians so unprepared to defend against the Nazi?

Why were they shooting those who retreated? Did that really happen?

Read some posts and articles, watched some strange interviews on youtube. The videos have surprising amount of people agreeing. Just wondering if there is any evidence and why do so many people believe that its been over exaggerated.

Hello,

I am neither British nor a Englishphile, but I have been greatly enjoying video content by the BBC (via their podcasts) and the British museum (especially their "Masterpieces of the British Museum" series). I have learned a lot from that content, and enjoyed it immensely.

Pardon me if this question is inappropriate for this subreddit, but I would love to know about any historical content in video or podcast form. It can be focused on certain artifacts, or individuals or civilizations. I have just been really enjoying the content I mentioned, and am struggling to find anything similar in quality, which is frustrating. My interests lie in everything up to and including the Middle Ages (intentionally broad).

Once again, sorry if this isn't an appropriate question to ask here. I thought about posting in R/History, but I honestly have more faith in any of the posters I encounter here, and want the perspective of an actual historian - i value this very much. I would just love some more historical content in video or audio format, and have struggled to find much of anything. I'd greatly appreciate any and all recommendations (including to never post a thread like this again), thank you.

• Love, Raymond

My wife and I were talking about the standard of appearance for men and women and the question came up of why men usually don't attempt to obscure blemishes or enhance facial features, but it is considered standard for women.

The recent talk about a hypothetical Canada - Scotland political union has me wondering whether an old world country has ever been ruled or governed from the new world. Outside of marginal cases such as the American occupation zone of Germany, the closest analog seems to me to be my (dimly recalled and possibly mistaken impression) that at some point during the Brazilian monarchy, Portugal was run from Brazil. Is this correct?

Russia fell out of Mongol control about 500 years before World War II, exactly what did calling someone "mongolian" mean in 1945 and why and how did this connotation come to be? Also how did it come to be associated with the russians, a people removed from Mongol Rule for more than 500 years?

I assume it is related to the Mongols reputation for savagery, and or the rule of the Golden Horde over the Russian principalities from the 1230s to the mid 1400s but I am interested as to the specifics.

I am British, and I am continually told that we have not been invaded since 1066. That whiffs of utter nonsense to me, just some patriotic chest beating which ignores actual history. British history retelling has a horrible tendency to ignore actual history leaving a shallow reinterpretation of what history is, and the older I get the more I see how much of a facade what I have been told actually is. See, for example, all the pomp and circumstance around Magna Carta, which ignores all the facts of what Magna Carta is, and how it does not really mean what people say it does. So, I turn to you, some learned historians.

When was the last time the British Isles were invaded by an enemy force? If possible, separate out successful invasion from unsuccessful. If also possible, explain why other extant invasions do not seem to be counted when discussing invasions.

For the purposes of distinction, let's classify an invasion as an actual enemy army landing on mainland British soil, to filter out weird instances of either single men or small groups.

wikipedia state's they were the first shock calvary, but in true wikipedia style they don't offer any references. So I come to you, experts of the internet.

Why are they taught in school as a course? How have they impacted society, and do we use it in everyday life?