Browse Items (143 total)

For the non-Muslim, Mecca is the most forbidden of Holy Cities--and yet, in many ways it is the best known. Muslim historians and geographers have studied it, and countless pilgrims and travelers--many of them European Christians in disguise--have…

A major Shi'i Muslim community with a long and eventful history, the Ismailis were until recently studied primarily on the basis of the accounts of their enemies, including the Sunni polemicists and the Crusader chroniclers. As a result, a host of…

"How did someone become pharaoh? -- What did a pharaoh do each day? -- Did the pharaoh personally lead his army into battle? -- How influential was the Great Royal Wife? -- How was a pharaoh embalmed and buried? -- Who was the last pharaoh (and it…

Chronicles the history of counting and calculating from the time of cave dwellers to the late twentieth century, examining how different cultures used numbers to solve basic problems related to their everyday needs.