What good books exist out there that tackle the historicity and historical figure of Muhammad? Trying to find a good book that critically analyzes the available sources.

One was a vast, mighty and magnificent empire, brilliantly organised and culturally unified, which dominated a massive swath of the earth. The other was an undeveloped, semi-feudal realm, riven by religious factionalism and barely able to feed its illiterate, diseased and stinking masses. The first was India. The second was England.

So begin's her Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire. My question is, how much poorer was the average Englishman in comparison to the Moghul peasant? Also, what was the literacy rate in England vs India in the 18th century?

With certain restrictions in place to curb the spread of COVID, what kind of changes were made to accommodate HIV.

I'm asking more in the realm of at the beginning of the epidemic, before testing/other technologies were readily available?

I’ve read that a significant factor in the fall of the Han was a strained budget caused by an inefficient taxation system. What flaws made this system inefficient?

or American style capitalism?

The Nazi ideology can be summarized as social darwinism. There is racial hierarchy and gender patriarchy. Weakness wasn't allowed and so on.

In a way Capitalism or the Free market also has elements of social darwinism. The stronger firms beat the weaker firms.

Germany already had strong brands like Mercedes, BMW, Adidas. These firms today enjoy capitalism as they are hugely sucessful.

Did Nazi Germany allow the free market. Was it government controlled?

If it was government controled didn't that contradict with their hatred of communism?

Since Christianity was pretty thoroughly hunted down in the Edo period, I was wondering if Christian traditions in Japan at the time deviated in any ways from mainline Christianity?

Basically, when Christianity became legal again in the Meiji era, did foreign Christians think Japanese Christians were doing religious rites or rituals in a strange or maybe antiquated way? Maybe it was because they could not get information from the main Church, or maybe as a consequence of having tiny numbers/hiding for so long?

Do you have any suggestions of books on entry level economics aiming to help one grasp economic theories and terminology, as well as familiarise with the evolution of economic systems/thought through history?

Or is Sudan campaign simply a convenient back story prior to the First World War? Wouldn't Boer campaigns make more sense in terms of horror of combat?

I noticed in many wars or battles for that matter, that a nation is never completely out in terms of remaining a player in a conflict. For example, during the Napoleonic wars France was constantly beating Austria to the curb and even conquered Austria at a certain point. But the Austrian people still existed. Austria as a nation, and as a culture was still somewhat there regardless of how battle scarred the nation was. Hitler committed genocide on the jews,but that still doesn’t change the fact that the Jewish population still exists today.

The Empty Fort Strategy is a chinese strategy that requires to open the gates and let the enemy in with no oposition in order to make them think they walk in an ambush. Should it work, the enemy leaves.

Are there any examples of this strategy (or a variation of it) working? There are examples of it being used during the warlods era, but the problem is they either come from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or other unreliable sources.

It seems like the kind of thing that would intentionally be written out, but I’m wondering if there are any well-known (or not very well-known) instances where historical figures just sort of...forgot.

Hello, I have been wondering for a long time why most non historian people get more interested in the 20th century than in other eras. I find the 20th century interesting but every time I see another non historian picking an era to study, it's always the 20th century, or when I find Instagram accounts about history, most of them are about WWII, why ?

Are there any figures out there for what % guns, tanks, vehicles, food and ammunition were being provided to and not produced by the soviets in WW2 at various points?

So I'm starting to get into the American Civil War, what are some good book covering the whole war's land battles and/or books about specific battles and books about the naval war between the two sides. Thanks all

Is there are more nuanced analysis to take out of the "Spanish Black Legend"? What amount of it is truth, and what is propaganda in bad faith?

Why are Kondratiev's long term cycles widely discredited even though they seem to work and match the economy's performance. Is the reason just because we can't explain why do they work or there is something else?

For the most part, I understand the hierarchy of the kings down to barons. Those types usually live outside the city and own lands of their own within the kingdom.

However, I'm a little confused as to what type of wealthy people, lords, ladies, other aristocrats would live within the city.

For example, let's say someone wealthy was hosting a party for other wealthy aristocrats. What other types of wealthy people from within the city would show up? Would those guests all be lords and ladies? Are all aristocrats lords and ladies? Would they be guild leaders? Would there be multiple people from the same guilds there?

I can only assume the types of wealthy people who live within a city are those who have business there. This leads to me people who guilds. Which I am also somewhat ignorant about. So I have a few questions about them as well.

Would there be guilds who compete against each other? By that I mean would there be two identical fishing guilds competing with each other trying to establish trade with business owners? Offering better prices, things like that? Or would there be only one fishing guild, and you'd have two different people from that same guild compete against each other?

What I imagine is a party of aristocrats rubbing elbows, talking business and solidifying deals with each other. And people competing for... the best trading prices on exotic spices or something. Those two spice merchants would belong to the same guild, yes? Or would they be from two separate guilds?

I guess my main questions are:

1. What types of wealthy people live within a medieval city?
2. Perhaps a better question would be, which types of people are considered the rich upper class of a medieval city?
3. Do these wealthy people live in manors/expensive houses inside the city? Or are they all visiting from out of town?
4. If some wealthy aristocrat throws a party at their house/manor in the city, who shows up?
5. Are all aristocrats considered lords/ladies? Or are aristocrats just rich people?
6. Are there identical guilds that compete with each other?
7. Or do people within a guild compete against each other to get more business?

Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

I understand that the term Jews nominally identify membership to the Tribe of Judah. My understanding, however, is that the term Jews is now an umbrella term for anyone claiming Hebraic descent, and not just limited to actual members of the Tribe of Judah.

If all Jews were descendants of the Tribe of Judah, then what precisely happened to the other tribes? How come the Jewish diaspora enabled certain Benjamites to retain their identity at least 2000 years ago, but somehow lost such identity 2000 years later?

My understanding is that RK left the ballroom and went through a kitchen after his speech as it was considered a short cut to the press room as the regular route was too crowded. He was advised not to take this route by some of his security people. He went anyway which would suggest this route was not planned ahead of time. Kennedy was shot in the crowded kitchen. So was this move to go through the kitchen planned ahead of time, otherwise how would the assassin believe he would get close enough to Kennedy to shoot him when he was in a kitchen and therefore in a place not likely to see Kennedy?

I got this idea from the Battlefield 2042 trailer which also reminded me of a few other instances in media like the firenado in Prince of Egypt. Have there ever been any major battles with high stakes (on the scale of Byzantium losing the Levant to the Caliphate in the Battle of Yarmouk) that were interrupted by nature? Earthquakes, Hurricanes, tornadoes etc? what effect did they have on the outcome of the battle?