Justin Marozzi (born 1970) is an English journalist, historian and travel writer. [1]
Marozzi studied at Cambridge University, where he gained a Starred Double First in History in 1993. He has also earned degrees in broadcast journalism from Cardiff University and in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania as a Thouron Scholar. [2] As a journalist, he worked for the BBC, the Financial Times and the Economist . He was also a contributing editor of The Spectator. [3]
Marozzi's publications include: South from Barbary (2001), an account of his explorations through the Libyan Sahara; Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (2004) which was a highly regarded biography of the Mongol conqueror Timur and was listed as a Sunday Telegraph Book of the Year; Faces of Exploration (2006), an account of famous explorers, was followed by The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus (2008), a biography of the world's first historian; Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood (2014); Islamic Empires - Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization (2019), and; A Thousand Golden Cities: 2,500 Years of Writing from Afghanistan and its People (2023).
Marozzi was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Manṣūr, better known by his regnal name al-Mahdī, was the third Abbasid Caliph who reigned from 775 to his death in 785. He succeeded his father, al-Mansur.
Paul Bede Johnson was an English journalist, popular historian, speechwriter and author. Although associated with the political left in his early career, he became a popular conservative historian.
Abu Ahmad Abdallah ibn al-Mustansir bi'llah better known by his regnal title Al-Mustaʿṣim bi-llāh was the 37th and last caliph from the Abbasid dynasty ruling from Baghdad. He held the title from 1242 until his death in 1258.
Sir Philip Christopher Ondaatje, OC, CBE, FRSL is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian–English businessman, philanthropist, adventurer, writer and bob-sledding Olympian for Canada. Ondaatje is the older brother of the author Michael Ondaatje and lives in both Chester, Nova Scotia, and the United Kingdom.
The siege of Baghdad during the Mongol conquests began on 29 January 1258 and ended on 10 February 1258. It was led by the Mongol army under the Ilkhanate and involved the investment, capture, and sack of Baghdad, which was the capital city of the Abbasid Caliphate at that time. Most of the residents were massacred during and after the siege, with civilian casualty figures ranging in the hundreds of thousands. Mongol troops were under the command of Hulagu Khan, brother of Möngke Khan, who had intended to further extend his rule into Mesopotamia but not to directly overthrow the Abbasids. However, Möngke had instructed Hulagu to assault Baghdad if the Abbasid caliph Al-Musta'sim refused to obey demands for his continued submission to the Mongol Empire and the payment of tribute in the form of military support for the Mongol campaign in Persia.
Anthony Shadid was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times based in Baghdad and Beirut who won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting twice, in 2004 and 2010.
Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore is a British historian, television presenter and author of popular history books and novels, including Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (2003), Jerusalem: The Biography (2011), The Romanovs 1613–1918 (2016), and The World: A Family History of Humanity (2022), among others.
Sectarian violence in Iraq developed as a result of rising sectarian tensions between the different religious and ethnic groups of Iraq, most notably the conflict between the Shi'i Muslim majority and the Sunni Muslim minority within the country.
The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someone who is a citizen of or who has been resident in the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.
The Thouron Award is a postgraduate scholarship established in 1960 by Sir John R.H. Thouron, K.B.E., and Esther du Pont Thouron. It was created to strengthen the "special relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdom through educational exchange between British universities and the University of Pennsylvania. Through the programme the Thourons sought to nourish and develop Anglo-American friendship by ensuring that, in the years to come, a growing number of the leading citizens of these two countries would have a thorough understanding of their trans-Atlantic neighbours. In the years since its founding, the Thouron Award has sponsored programs of graduate study for more than 650 fellows, known as Thouron Scholars.
Justin John Rutledge is a Toronto-based Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter signed to Outside Music.
The city of Baghdad was established by the Abbasid dynasty as its capital in the 8th century, marking a new era in Islamic history after their defeat of the Umayyad Caliphate. It replaced Seleucia-Ctesiphon, a Sassanid capital 35 km southeast of Baghdad, which was virtually abandoned by the end of the 8th century. Baghdad was the center of the Caliphate during the Islamic Golden Age of the 9th and 10th centuries, growing to be the largest city worldwide by the beginning of the 10th century. It began to decline in the Iranian Intermezzo of the 9th to 11th centuries and was destroyed in the Mongolian invasion in 1258.
Timur or Tamerlane was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeated commander, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest military leaders and tacticians in history, as well as one of the most brutal and deadly. Timur is also considered a great patron of art and architecture as he interacted with intellectuals such as Ibn Khaldun, Hafez, and Hafiz-i Abru and his reign introduced the Timurid Renaissance.
Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril is a book written by King Abdullah II of Jordan and published by Viking Press in New York City. The book, available in eight languages, highlights King Abdullah's vision towards resolving the Arab–Israeli conflict, as well as the challenges facing the Middle East.
Ian Thomson is an English author, best known for his biography Primo Levi (2002), and reportage, The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica (2009)
Owen Matthews is a British writer, historian and journalist. His first book, Stalin's Children, was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award, the Orwell Prize for political writing, and France's Prix Médicis Etranger. His books have been translated into 28 languages. He is a former Moscow and Istanbul Bureau Chief for Newsweek.
The siege of Tbilisi was the successful siege of the city of Tbilisi, capital of the Kingdom of Georgia, by the Turkic conqueror Tamerlane, which ended on 22 November 1386. The official history of his reign, Zafarnama, represents this campaign in Georgia as a jihad. After this, Timur invaded Kingdom of Georgia again in a Battle of Surami in late 1386.
Kulwatha also called Kulwathi is an ancient city mentioned in the writings of Greek, Arab and Syrian historians. The medieval city of Baghdad was built opposite of this city. It was located on the east bank of the Tigris River. In ancient times there was a gate named Kulawatha gate. Today this city is part of al-Rusafa and called Karrada.
Aida Edemariam is an Ethiopian-Canadian journalist based in the UK, who has worked in New York, Toronto and London. She was formerly deputy review and books editor of the Canadian National Post, and is now a senior feature writer and editor at The Guardian in the UK. She lives in Oxford. Her memoir about her Ethiopian grandmother, The Wife's Tale: A Personal History, won the Ondaatje Prize in 2019.
The sack of Aleppo was a major event in 1400 during the war between the Timurid Empire and Mamluk Sultanate.