In this podcast Professor Andrew Jotischky of Royal Holloway University of London, discusses some of the key historians and interpretations of the Crusades. Professor Jotischky explores the influences and thinking that informed different historian's research, approaches and traditions and looks at how this has transformed the study and understanding of...

In this podcast Dr Natasha Hodgson of Nottingham Trent University discusses the development of the Crusader States, the role and influence of the Genoa, Venice and Pisa on this development and examines the origins and significance of the Holy Military Orders. Hodgson discusses what daily life was like and the role of the...

In this podcast, Professor Jonathan Phillips of Royal Holloway, University of London, provides an introduction to the Fourth Crusade.

In this podcast, Professor Jonathan Phillips of Royal Holloway, University of London, provides an introduction to the Third Crusade.

In this podcast Dr Dionysios Stathakopoulos looks at the period 1204-1453 and discusses the political, but also cultural history of the Empire in this era with an emphasis on what Byzantium bequeathed to the early modern world - the Renaissance in Italy.

This podcasts looks at the two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when the use of religious images or icons was opposed by religious and imperial authorities within the Eastern Church and the temporal imperial hierarchy.

In this podcast Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith looks at the initial and long term effects of Crusades and examines how they have been treated by both western and eastern historians and thinkers over time.

In this podcast Dr Tom Asbridge of Queen Mary, University of London examines Saladin's rise to power, his motivations, his achievements and his legacy.

In this podcast Dr Dionysios Stathakopoulos looks at the court, the Church and the army as well as social stratification in the Byzantine Empire.

In this podcast Dr Nicholas Morton (Nottingham Trent University) discusses the role the Near East played in the development and transmission of technology and innovation during the medieval period. Dr Morton looks examines the significance of gunpowder, the navigational compass and maritime chart, and also how the changing civilisations of the medieval Near East...

In this set of podcasts Emeritus Professor Gerald Hawting of SOAS, University of London provides an introduction to the Abbasid (750-1258) Caliphate.

In this podcast Dr Dionysios Stathakopoulos looks at the period from 500-1204 charting the history of the Empire as it met with formidable enemies and had to adapt to change.

In this podcast, Nick Holmes, suggests that the Crusades formed part of amedieval world war that stretched from Asia to Europe. At its centre was the ancient empire Byzantium. Nick Holmes links three great events that changed history: the fall of Byzantium in the eleventh century, the epic campaign of...

In this podcast Professor Riley-Smith examines Antioch: the turning point of the Crusade, Edessa, the advance on Jerusalem, the use of modern warfare, the massacre of Jerusalem, ethnic cleansing, the consequences of the fall of Jerusalem and the creation of the Crusader States.

In this podcast Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith gives an outline of events and causes of the First Crusade.

In this podcast Professor Riley-Smith looks at the epic nature of the First Crusade and how the crusade proceeded across Europe and Asia Minor.

In this podcast Professor Peter Frankopan, University of Oxford, looks at the causes of the First Crusade through Eastern sources (Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Arabic and Hebrew), rather than Western (Latin) sources. Professor Frankopan discusses the different interpretations these sources provide and highlights the key role of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and the rapid...

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, also called Five Dynasties, was an era of political upheaval in 10th-century imperial China. During this period, five states quickly succeeded one another in the Chinese Central Plain, while more than a dozen concurrent states were established elsewhere, mainly in south China. Traditionally,...

In this podcast Dr Francois Soyer, of the University of Southampton, looks at the establishment of an Islamic Spain, the transmission of knowledge from the Islamic world to Latin Christendom and the Reconquista

In this podcast Professor Kevin MacDonald (University College London) examines the history of the Mali Empire, discusses the importance of using both oral history and archaeology to construct this history and also reflects upon the empire’s legacy. The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita (c. 1214...