Grasp how the tribes of the Arabian peninsula: within only 100 years of their conversion to Islam: were able to conquer half the Mediterranean world, shattering its unity, spinning its parts onto divergent paths, and establishing religious, linguistic, and cultural boundaries that persist to this day.
Investigate the epochal turning point of the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the abolition of the Islamic caliphate--Islam's supreme religious authority--after 1300 years. Witness the remapping of the Middle East by the imperial powers of Britain and France, the impact of these changes on the region, and the emergent states of the modern Middle East.
Investigate the phenomenon of the British East India Company, a militarized trading organization of astonishing power and reach. Learn about the Company's seizure of the strategic Yemeni port of Aden, which became a trading center of global importance, heralding Britain's century-spanning imperial presence in the Middle East.