Hey!

Middle Eastern history has a lot of easily definable eras which have had monographies written and dedicated to them - The Caliphate Era, or the Ummayad and Abbasid Eras; The Ottoman Empire or the Safavid Empire for Iran, with both actually becoming big at a similar time; the early modern era, 20th century... You get it.

There remains a pretty substantial chunk of the region's history between the slow death of the Abbasids and the emergence of the Ottomans. It is by no means an uneventful period - it is the time of the Crusades, Seljuqs, Mongols, Timur, the Persian Renaissance, Buyids, Fatimids...

I have some rough idea of this period, but my knowledge is somewhat chaotic and I would appreaciate reading a good book on the subject to freshen up what I know and somewhat organize it in my head, but struggle with finding any which would cover this period specifically! Do you guys have any good recommendations? I am interested both in general regional overviews and specifically Iranian history as well.

Thanks a lot!