Middle East

Premium

The final instalment in our 20-part series looking at decisive moments of the last 1,000 years in British history explores 1950–1999. (Image by Getty Images)

Turning points 1956: The shock of Suez . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 14th-century illustration of a farmer leading a pack animal through the ice and snow

The surprisingly modern Middle Ages

A group of Tunisian Jews are rounded up and marched through the streets of Tunis carrying shovels in December 1942

Holocaust in the Middle East

Premium

HEX_Voices_Michael Wood

Michael Wood on Afghanistan “A new world is emerging, reviving older connections” . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Premium

HEX_Voices_AnnaWhitelock

Anna Whitelock's Talking Points A history of violence . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Premium

A panel of expert historians discuss how history can help make sense of current events in Afghanistan. (Image by Getty Images)

Afghanistan: a history of instability . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A homemade Ouija board helped two World War I prisoners of war escape

A homemade ouija board, a treasure hunt and fake madness: the great escape of World War I

An illustration from The Travels of Marco Polo, showing a teenage Marco on the deck of a ship sailing away from Venice

Why are Marco Polo’s travels so famous?

Premium

Neil Faulkner reveals how the Anglo-Arab Wars of 1870-1920 helped give rise to the first modern jihad

Jihad and the British empire . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration showing a woman 'Arib al-Ma’muniyya, playing an instrument while four men listen. A chess board is in the foreground

‘Arib al-Ma’muniyya: the enslaved medieval woman who sang her way to wealth

An Israeli pilot after the raid on Entebbe

Operation Thunderbolt: Was the 1976 ‘raid on Entebbe’ a brilliant rescue?

Concerned that Russia was expanding its influence in the region, Britain invaded Afghanistan in 1839, ousting ruler Dost Mohammad and replacing him with Shah Shuja, who had been king from 1803–10. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Britain’s first war in Afghanistan: what happened and why?

Premium

Eugene Rogan answers listener questions on one of history’s most powerful and long lasting empires. (Image from Getty Images)

The Ottoman empire: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Representations of digits from the ninth century, 11th century and the present day

Digital revolution: the evolution of Hindu-Arabic numerals

Kurdish fighters in north-west Iran, 1918

The history of the Kurds in Iraq: “the largest people never to have achieved statehood”