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The official website for BBC History Magazine, BBC History Revealed and BBC World Histories Magazine

Middle East

(Illustration by Davide Bonazzi for BBC World Histories magazine)

Is the world still living in the shadow of the crusades?

Figure of Tutankhamun

In pictures: the glittering treasures of Tutankhamun

The Temple Scroll, from the Dead Sea Scrolls

General ancient history

Digging for the Bible: 10 key discoveries from the Holy Land

Illustration by Joey Guidone

The big question: has terrorism ever achieved its aims?

An open Bible on an altar

General ancient history

A history of the Bible: who wrote it and when?

Dan Jones by Steve Sayers and Helen Castor

The Crusades, with Dan Jones

Four soliders of the 36th Sikhs, various ranks, 1896. The regiment was led in January 1897 to occupy the Samana posts, says Captain Jay Singh-Sohal. (Reproduced with permission from australiansikhheritage.com)

The battle of Saragarhi: when 21 Sikh soldiers stood against 10,000 men

The Suez canal

How significant was the Suez Crisis?

An illustration of the battle of Agincourt. By attacking over unsuitable ground, Charles d’Albret “doomed his army”, says Rupert Matthews. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The top 10 military blunders in history

Star of the east
Ahmad Zahir was born into a high-ranking family in Afghanistan,
and used his charisma and musical talent to carve a hugely successful
but tragically short career as the country’s foremost singing star.
He played a huge range of innovative music, and many of his
songs touched on political and social themes.

The ‘Afghan Elvis’: the extraordinary life of Ahmad Zahir

The Knights Templar depicted on an antique map of Jerusalem. (Alamy)

The rise and fall of the Knights Templar

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, last Shah of Iran, pictured in 1967 with his third wife, Farah Diba, and their son Reza. His attempted reforms during his final years in power alienated many of his nation's people. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The Iranian Revolution: why 1979’s uprising still shapes the Middle East

British soldiers guard an oil pipeline, leading from Iraq to Palestine, at the Kishon river, in what is now Israel, in 1941. When Baghdad was retaken, the flow of oil was restored. (Image by Bridgeman)

Second World War

The (forgotten) Iraq war

Towards the end of the third century BC, the First Emperor of China sought to make his new state immortal by shielding it with what would be the earliest predecessor to the Great Wall. (Photo by Jean-Luc PETIT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

General ancient history

A brief history of border walls – from 2,000 BC to Trump’s Mexico wall

Passengers reading a newspaper while waiting to disembark from the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury, having sailed from Jamaica, taken by an unknown photographer for the Daily Herald newspaper, 21 June 1948. "The Windrush scandal would have been inconceivable if we knew that those we are deporting not only helped to build the welfare state but were either born as, or to subjects of, the British state", says Professor Kehinde Andrews. (Photo by Daily Herald Archive/SSPL/Getty Images)

Do we need to decolonise history? And if so, how?