What did getting a haircut look like for a king/emperor for the High Middle Ages? Was there a on call barber that served the whole court or purely just the King?

I was getting a haircut (and thinking about Frederick Barbarossa as you do) and I believe his description was hair cropped short with a beard, so I'm wondering how that actually worked back then.

My barber has tools and clippers to trim around my head and clean up edges; Would Frederick's just do it with shears/scissors? Would medieval "short cropped hair" look a little long to us?

And would this person (only men or possibly women?) only service the King or the whole court, prioritizing the King?

Can anyone recommend a book on the destruction of the Institute of Sexology by the Nazis in the '30s?

Back when it's still relevant as a weapon in war, who/what kind of person uses a crossbow? Are there certain places more known for them, what is their profession, etc.

If Allah is just Arabic for God, how did we end up calling all gods from all religions from all languages "gods", but the Islamic god specifically is Allah?

if you had a modern picture of the globe with all 7 continents , and you decided to show it to the best minds of the past, at what point in time would they be able to guess it is the world?

really hard question to phrase

say the smartest egyptians and greeks in Ptolemaic times. if they saw a modern picture of the globe, would they be able to guess what it was based on their contemporary knowledge?

Did people in ancient cultures take naps? Is that in their historical records in any form? I'm talking ancient Egypt and pre-ancient Egypt. Were midday naps a thing?

What are the oldest games for which we have rules? What are the oldest for which we DON'T?

I bet archaeologists have found game boards or pieces but no record of how it was played.

I just graduated from Columbia University yesterday, which marked the 268th Commencement of the university. Where was the original 18th century campus located, and is there any landmark or location indicating it that I can go visit?

What are some accessible but scholarly accurate books on Denisovians?

Are there any political maps of lands near the Atlantic around the time of 1692?

It is for a piece of fiction involving pirates. I would like to know about the European colonies in the Americas, holdouts of native populations, and the situation on the West African coast.

Did any historical figures lie about their religious affiliation for their own gain aside from you-know-who and people too recent?

How legal it was for Frank Hamer to apprehend/shoot on sight Bonnie and Clyde in Louisiana if Hamer was a Texas ranger? Did jurisdiction matter? Did nobody simply care because of B&C notoriety?

Orange is named after the fruit. Not the other way round. Why? Orange itself isn’t uncommon, not hard to reproduce and can be seen often on sunsets. It’s a way more common color than e.g. purple.

I assume it was called some sort of "warm yellow“ or so. A shade of yellow. But why the change to an own name, especially after a fruit. Apples can be bright red. Bright green and haven’t had such an impact nor (many) other things.

Did any Armenians or Greeks fight in the Ottoman Army during WW1? At least in the first year or so

Are there any more sources on Úlfhéðnar besides Harald Fairhairs saga and Volsungs saga? I am aware of several fragments, but they don’t really have what I’m looking for.

Why is the food sold at theaters called “concessions”? Doesn’t that term usually imply that there was some sort of conflict where one side had to concede? Was there some sort of conflict at one point?

I have multiple questions, all related to East Asia. While you don't have to answer all of them, since they are all somewhat related, it would be really nice if you could answer multiple at a time.

1. What designs did pre-Han Chinese nobles have on their garments?
2. What materials were ancient KOREAN clothes made of, aside from silk? If silk was the oldest material, when was it introduced?
3. How was the Mongol Empire divided administratively? According to what I could find, it simply had very little organizational structure so that the Mongols could lord over the land more directly (of course), but for an empire that large there must have been something.
4. What was the symbol of the Mongols BEFORE the fiery thing you see on their flag? (I'm on mobile and I can't really search it up right now)

What is a "mass-based" party? What distinguishes it from a non-"mass-based" political party?

Why was King Tut such a big deal as a kid? Like I remember always hearing about King Tut

What were the impacts on imperialism on China in the 19th and/or early 20th century? e.g socially, economical, political

How exactly was bolshevism understood in Western Europe in 1930s, and why was it so scary?

E.g. here are a few quotes:

1. "Bolshevism was held responsible not only for the German collapse of 1918, but also for the undermining of discipline in both the army and the navy", Germany and the Second World War, vol 4.
2. "On 19 November 1937 Halifax met Hitler at Berchtesgaden. [...] He praised Nazi Germany 'as the bulwark of Europe against Bolshevism' [...]", The Origins of the Second World War.
3. "Throughout his career, Mussolini took credit for saving Italy from imminent Bolshevism", Anti-Bolshevism and the Advent of Mussolini and Hitler.

How did Teddy Roosevelt's glasses not fall off when he galloped up San Juan hill?

Were they tied to his face or did he just charge up without them on?

The Polish szlachta of the 16th century was composed of at one point over a million “petty” nobles, many of which were smallholders. How much land did your typical Polish smallholder have? An acre? Several?

My family has this 1800s German paperwork thats been passed down-https://imgur.com/a/PCzStkS

not really looking for a full translation, but hoping the format or something on it might be known to someone here to give us a bit of context. Thanks for any help!

There was some Ukranian revolutionary, in the 1920s or 1930s, that tried to do a communist or communist like revolution. What was his name, and what is a good objective source to read about him that will be suited for someone who is mostly ignorant about the historical context? (preferably less than 20 pages long)

Who first named the continents?

This is kind of a three part question I guess:

1. Who first named the continents as they are known by most of the world today

2. When did people accept these names universally.

3. What was the interplay between being a member of a nation state and being a member of a continental region historically? Is this an early modern invention - or did it mean something in antiquity to be both from, for example, ‘Mali’ and ‘Africa’?

Is calling Russians Orcs a modern thing or does is it something older that's been resurrected?

Who were the 19 political parties who signed the Oxford Manifesto?

Approximately how many households/dwellings were occupied in ancient Rome at its height?

Could I get a recommendation for a book or journal about the electrification of the U.S. and/or Europe? I read a really interesting novel called "the last days of night" about Edison vs Westinghouse+Tesla and I'd love to know more about how it really went. More from the commercial and political aspect than the technical one.

Over what time frame could it be said that humanity changed from identifying according to tribe to identifying according to nations or kingdoms?

Aside from Bitter Fruit, what other books go into detail about the coup in Guatemala in 1954?

How does 1,200 francs per annum in 1806 compare to current USD?

I am reading Roberts’ biography of Napoleon. On page 423 of my edition (3 paragraphs into chapter 18), Napoleon is described as giving a French soldier’s widow 1,200 francs per annum which will transfer to her son upon her death. How much would this be worth in current USD?

C&Ping a post question here because it's hiding all the answers I'm getting

Could the British have formulated some sort of triangular trade regarding tea instead of drowning the Chinese in drugs?

I am currently reading Shattered Sword by Parshall and Tully and in doing so have run across a couple of questions I was hoping to ask the r/AskHistorians community. Parshall and Tully are highly critical of Yamamoto. Much of their criticism resonates with me. However, two points they made didn't and so I thought I would ask the community about them.

Regarding the necessity of attacking Pearl Harbor, Parshall and Tully state:

Yamamoto had insisted in 1941 that if Japan chose to capture the resources of the south through war, that war also had to include the United States. Furthermore, he believed that the U.S. Navy had to be dealt a crippling blow at the outset so as to buy time for Japan to carry out its operations in the southern campaign areas without opposition. In this view, he was opposed by several senior members of the Naval General Staff, including its head, Admiral Nagano Osami. Nagano was of the opinion that the United States would find it very difficult to go to war if Japan refrained from an outright attack. He reasoned (correctly) that President Franklin D. Roosevelt would have a difficult time rallying sufficient support for a causus belli based only on Japanese attacks against British and Dutch colonial holdings, as American popular opinion was decidedly ambivalent about defending such interests. Nagano had eventually lost the debate, even though his basic reasoning was sound. (pp. 25)

What is the consensus opinion of WW2 historians about this point? Are Parshall and Tully (and Nagano) correct? From reading this forum I have always gathered that:

• Yamamoto himself did not want war with the U.S., but accepted that it had become inevitable based on the prevailing attitudes in the IJA and IJN at the time.
• War with the U.S. really was inevitable if the Japanese wanted to seize the resources of the Southern Pacific because such an attack must include an attack on the U.S. military forces in the Philippines. Notably, in the above passage, Nagano seems to be under the assumption that attacking the Philippines would note have been necessary.
• Since War with the U.S. was bound to happen because of the two reasons given above, it had to begin with a knock-out blow against the U.S. Pacific Fleet, hence the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor.

So are Parshall and Tully correct? Could the Japanese have seized the resources they needed in 1941 without drawing the U.S. into a conflict?

Are there any examples of groups of people who literally "headed for the hills"? I.e.: peoples who moved permanently to high places to avoid a perceived spiritual, social, or political calamity?

Friends were talking about the Lost Colony of Roanoke. While its located in today’s North Carolina, I believe it was supposed to be part of the Virginia colony? I tried to google but results tend to be more focused on today’s Virginia, not one back then.