The remarkable Princess Gulbadan, flower of the Mughal court
Emperor Babur’s beloved daughter – whose name means ‘body like a rose’ – speaks to us across the centuries in a cliffhanging account of royal life in Hindustan
How the barbarians of the steppes shaped civilisation
The nomadic tribes of Central Asia eventually created vast empires that changed not only their own world but western history, says Kenneth W. Harl
The battle for the Nile
The explorers’ journey to solve the great geographical puzzle of the Victorian age, and the bad blood it resulted in, is described in gripping detail by Candice Millard
Were the Ottoman Turks as European as they thought themselves?
This is the best of times to be writing history, since so much of what has been taken for granted,…
The empire that sprang from nowhere under the banner of Islam
When the British formed the basis of their empire in the 1600s by acquiring territories in India and North America,…
Marina Warner becomes her mother’s ‘shabti’
There comes a time after the death of parents when grief subsides, the sense of loss eases, and you, the…
Lives of luxury for Sparta’s women
History is full of ‘ifs’ and the Spartan story fuller than most. If the 300 had not made their famous…
Dreaming of the desert: my life in the Sahara, by Sanmao
Travel writing is ‘the red light district of literature’, as Colin Thubron aptly put it, a space where anything goes.…
William Dalrymple has nailed the East India Company for what it was: ‘a supreme act of corporate violence’
A boardful of company directors are summoned to explain themselves to a Whitehall select committee. The Bank of England has…
The Arabs before Islam: a rich, exotic history
In his first book, published in 1977, Tim Mackintosh-Smith described mentioning the idea of travelling to Yemen while studying Arabic…
The scramble for Africa goes back many centuries
A thought kept recurring as I read Toby Green’s fascinating and occasionally frustrating book on the development of West Africa…
From Barbary corsairs to people-traffickers: the violence of the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean has always been central to European civilisation — and a source of drama and conflict, says Anthony Sattin
A treasure-trove of grisly Arab tales may appeal more to an Isis fighter than your average British reader
The marvellous tales of the title are not just confined to the contents of this book, for the travels and…
American Smoke, by Iain Sinclair - review
If you have read Iain Sinclair’s books you will know that he is a stylist with a love of language.…
