Middle East

This painting in Kensington Palace shows a group standing on a balustrade. Among them are George I’s two Turkish grooms of the chamber, ‘Mustapha’ and ‘Mohamed’. (Photo by Steve Vidler/Alamy Stock Photo)

Tales of the Turk

From The Library

A scene from ’Othello’ by William Shakespeare, published in 1622. The play “seems to have been influenced by Anglo-Moroccan relations that reached their high point in the summer of 1600,” writes Brotton. (Culture Club/Getty Images)

Elizabethan England’s relationship with the Islamic world

Turkish artillery of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. (Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

6 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Ottoman Empire

Podcast Website large Sayegh Wissam

BBC Arabic at 80

Historian Simon Schama.

Books interview: Simon Schama

From The Library

General Edmund Allenby walks into Jerusalem on 11 December 1917

The Balfour Declaration: Britain’s unholy mess

From The Library

"The Knights Templare were able to flight across all terrains. They were the equivalent of the SAS, the Navy SEALS or the French Foreign Legion," says Dan Jones. (Alamy)

The rise and fall of the Knights Templar

From The Library

1410444226746-a8dd5f6

When 21 Sikh soldiers stood against 10,000 men: the battle of Saragarhi

TerrorismAimsMAIN-e998143

The big question: Has terrorism ever achieved its aims?

The crews of Israeli armoured vehicles during the waiting period before the beginning of the Six-Day War. (Photo by David Rubinger/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Six days that shook the Middle East

From The Library

Bethlehem. (Getty Images)

My favourite place: Bethlehem, West Bank

From The Library

Second-Anglo-Afghan-War-2-a16e489

Second World War

The end game: Britain’s role in Afghanistan 1947–50

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr (centre) at a UN Security Council meeting concerning the Suez crisis. (Photo by Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Blood and sand: Suez, Hungary and the crisis that shook the world

From The Library

The Mar Elian Catholic monastery burnt by Islamic State militants in 2016. (Photo by Valery SharifulinTASS via Getty Images)

History under attack: the destruction of antiquities in the Middle East

From The Library