Pamela Toler

Deciphering the Indus Valley

by PamelaToler June 18, 2013
Deciphering the Indus Valley

by Pamela Toler Around 2500 BCE, the first cities appeared on the banks of the Nile in Egypt, at the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), and in the valley of the Indus River in what is now Pakistan and northwest India India. Thanks to the Old Testament, traveling museum [...]

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Stranger Magic

by PamelaToler May 18, 2013
Stranger Magic

by Pamela Toler I’m fascinated by the Arabian Nights. By the stories themselves and the way they fit together into their complicated frame story. By their transformation from Arabic street tales to a established position in the Western canon. By their echoes in Western culture, from the Romantic poets to Disney. So I was delighted [...]

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A Labyrinth of Kingdoms

by PamelaToler April 18, 2013
A Labyrinth of Kingdoms

By Pamela Toler Sometimes a book grabs you by the throat and won’t let you put it down. I recently experienced that with Steve Kemper’s A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles Through Islamic Africa. I got so wrapped up in the story that I broke my long-standing rule about traveling with hardcover books because I [...]

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Suleyman the Magnificent Builds a Mosque

by PamelaToler March 18, 2013
Suleyman the Magnificent Builds a Mosque

by Pamela Toler Commissioning a mosque was both an act of piety and a political statement in the Ottoman empire. Surrounded by building complexes that provided social services ranging from a public fountain to a caravanserai, mosques anchored new neighborhoods in old cities. Who commissioned what was carefully linked to social status. Small officials commissioned [...]

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Walking Hallowed Ground

by PamelaToler February 18, 2013
Walking Hallowed Ground

By Pamela Toler Over the years, I’ve walked through many a historical battleground, from the Battle of Wilson’s Creek (just outside the town where I grew up) to the Battle of Hastings. My Own True Love will tell you that I tear up at every battlefield I visit. Or at least get a lump in [...]

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The Baburnama : An Emperor Tells His Own Story

by PamelaToler January 18, 2013
The <em>Baburnama </em>: An Emperor Tells His Own Story

By Pamela Toler (Wonders and Marvels Contributor) Zahir-u-din Muhammad Babur was the first Mughal ruler of India–one of history’s great empire builders by any standard. Born in 1483 in the Central Asian kingdom of Ferghana (part of modern Uzbekistan), Babur was descended from two great conquerors: Genghis Khan and Timur (known in the west as [...]

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Tipu’s Tiger

by PamelaToler December 18, 2012
Tipu's Tiger

By Pamela Toler  (Wonders and Marvels Contributor) “Tipu’s Tiger” is one of the most popular exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  For generations, British school children and American tourists have lined up to watch the large mechanical tiger maul a fallen British gentleman.   Today the toy is too fragile to operate, but once upon [...]

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12 Days of Books: Big Bang, Big Brains, Big History

by PamelaToler December 13, 2012
12 Days of Books: Big Bang, Big Brains, Big History

By Pamela Toler  (Wonders and Marvels Contributor) Mankind: The Story of All of Us is the history of the world from the Big Bang to the 21st century—told in six two-hour television episodes and one 437-page book. Writing the companion book for a television series is different than writing a book based on your own [...]

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Ibn Who?

by PamelaToler November 18, 2012
Ibn Who?

by Pamela Toler If you spend any time studying history in a serious way–whether in school and/or as a dedicated history nerd–you end up with a list in your head of Great Historians of the Past: Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus, the Venerable Bede, Gibbon, Macaulay, Prescott. Even after their historical works were revised or even rejected [...]

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Déjà Vu All Over Again: Attack on the British Garrison in Kabul, 1878

by PamelaToler October 18, 2012
Déjà Vu All Over Again: Attack on the British Garrison in Kabul, 1878

by Pamela Toler As I believe I mentioned last month, the British government in India was always paranoid about the possibility of Russian influence on the northern border of Afghanistan. (Some of the most paranoid even thought the Russians were behind the Indian Mutiny of 1857. *) In 1878, the amir of Afghanistan pushed British [...]

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Déjà vu All Over Again? Attack on the British Garrison in Kabul, 1841

by PamelaToler September 18, 2012
Déjà vu All Over Again? Attack on the British Garrison in Kabul, 1841

by Pamela Toler The story I’m about to tell is confusing. It’s about people you’ve never heard of, some of whom make bad decisions. In the end, people die and nothing much changes. In short, it’s a story about the West and Afghanistan. In 1838, Dost Muhammad Khan was the Amir of Afghanistan. He had [...]

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Alhazen: The First True Scientist?

by PamelaToler August 18, 2012
Alhazen: The First True Scientist?

by Pamela Toler Islamic scholar Abu Ali al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham (ca. 965-1041), known in the West as Alhazen, began his career as just another Islamic polymath. He soon got himself in trouble with the ruler of Cairo by boasting that he could regulate the flow of the Nile with a series of dams and dikes. [...]

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From Here to Timbuktu

by PamelaToler July 18, 2012
From Here to Timbuktu

By Pamela Toler Timbuktu has been in the news lately as a result of growing control by Islamic extremists, whose narrow interpretation of sharia law has led to the destruction of Muslim tombs, innocent people lashed in the streets, and thousands of refugees fleeing their homes. It’s a good time to remind people of a [...]

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An Islamic Map for a Christian King

by PamelaToler June 18, 2012
An Islamic Map for a Christian King

by Pamela Toler   Most maps made in twelfth century Europe were based on tradition and myth rather than scientific information. The only practical maps were mariners’ charts that showed coastlines, ports of call, shallows and places to take on provisions and water.  Roger II, the Christian king of Sicily, wanted a map of the [...]

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Muslim Spain–The Sound Track

by PamelaToler May 18, 2012
Muslim Spain--The Sound Track

By Pamela Toler These days, I’m spending a lot of time in Muslim Spain–a golden age of cross-cultural pollination by any standard. At a time when most of Europe was wallowing in the Dark Ages, Muslim Spain was a center of wealth, learning–and (relative) tolerance. If you wanted libraries, hot baths, or good health care, [...]

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