I studied International Studies and Religious Studies in uni where most of my research was focused on Islamic militant groups in the present day. Consequently my education was very Sunni focused and given that my professors weren't incredibly familiar with the Shi'a the limited forays I made into Shi'i Islam and Iranian Twelver Shi'ism in particular were basically independent affairs.

For my education the theological history was less important than more recent developments and doctrine (mid 1800s to the present) and so while I have knowledge of the broad strokes of early Islamic history and more specialised knowledge of recent history there are some gaps in the middle.

Essentially I had been taught that the Sunni-Shi'a division dated back to early Islamic history but I've heard a few different places that there are suggestions that Shi'i Islam as a distinct entity doesn't really arise until the Safavid establishment of a distinctly Shi'a Persian state. I was wondering what the specific arguments are for this view and some reading material if anybody has any.

I know for the fact why we bombed Japanese cities because Curtis LeMay found out that the Japanese had utilized cottage industry (i.e., making war parts in homes rather than factories) in order to produce weapons of war and it was also because Japan was an island nation filled with mountains terrains, leaving them no room to build munitions factories outside cities.

However, I could not find any data whatsoever about the way our war industry was situated at the same time. Is it the same as Japan? Or that it was entirely different? Were factories situated near residential homes or something like that? What about today? Thanks.

I would love to know how much this tank was actually used for anti-tank combat vs anti-infantry? I am having a hard time finding any primary resources regarding combat actions involving this tank.

Books to do with the medieval period and the kind. My personal areas of interest:

Chivalry, cathedrals/churches, knights, everyday life, hunting.

Is there some sort of relationship between the cities? Does the name Thebes mean something? Were there different name for the cities in the respective languages of Egyptian and Ancient Greek?

The Bahamas especially are so close and similar to the Florida keys and Cuba was Spanish and surely ripe for the picking.

Why didn't America take it?

We get such a one-sided view in every discussion, but honestly - human nature being what it is, there must have been many times that Indian tribes decided to just disregard treaties. Maybe a new chief felt he was not bound by the agreements of his predecessor, maybe some young braves simply decided to attack a settlement or a homestead on their own, maybe a tribe just thought the treaty had run its course and no longer applied. But this is seldom addressed in history books.

How rare was it for cavarly to just rush ahead of everyone elsee and still mostly survive. We see in movies that the cavarly just charged and kept charging until the battle was won. Wouldn't that be extremely dangerous if you were surrounded by enemy soldiers even when on horseback?

This was a question I asked my grade 7 history teacher and he was never able to give me a great answer. I understand there is more habitable space in the US, but there are a number of geographically smaller countries than Canada with a much larger population.

It's always struck me as odd that an American sport could become so popular in China. How did this come about?

I've heard a number of reasons - religious, geographical, etc.

Is there an agreed on 'most-likely' answer, or is it simply just a combination of many.

Reading through Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World and it says, "Mongol officials sent their Korean subjects a demand for one hundred thousand sheets of their famous paper." This is the first I've heard about Korean paper being special. What made it so famous?

Basically the argument I heard was that many early matchlocks were extremely expensive, hand crafted weapons commissioned by nobles for target shooting and so were far more accurate than the cheap, mass produced muskets given to troops in the 18th century.

Obviously, East Germany didn't take over, but I'm thinking there may have been a referendum that created an essentially new universal German government instead.