Chalke Talk

The podcast from the Chalke Valley History Festival
Released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings

Chalke Talks for REGION: Middle East


  • 01. NO TURNING BACK: LIFE, LOSS AND HOPE IN WARTIME SYRIA
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    Award-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid presents reportage of unprecedented scope. From the first rumblings of dissent in 2011, she shows the unravelling of a nation: peaceful protests collapsing into violence, families shattered, and religious conviction sharpened by rage to a radical point. She reveals how Syrians found new ways to resist as the cruelty of the […]

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  • 13. THE CRUSADES AND MEDIEVAL WARFARE
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    In this talk for senior schools, Professor Jeremy Black gives an insight into the motivations of the Crusaders. In addition to the notion that Jerusalem should be ‘freed’, this period saw the expansionism of European feudal society, a new role for the papacy, and developing commercial opportunities, as well as a desire to protect Constantinople. […]

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  • 93. JERUSALEM: THE HOLY CITY AND THE MIDDLE EAST
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    Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilisations. Best-selling author Simon Sebag Montefiore tells the epic history of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence. 

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  • 102. MODERN IRAN: REVOLUTIONS, REPUBLIC AND WAR
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    Iran remains an enigma to most of us in the West: once Persia, a land rich in culture, exoticism and history, but more recently a country embroiled in wars and an Islamic revolution. In this talk, Ali Ansari, Professor of Iranian History at the University of St Andrews, explains why modern Iran has evolved in […]

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  • 124. THE ISLAMIC ENLIGHTENMENT: THE MODERN STRUGGLE BETWEEN FAITH AND REASON
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    The Muslim world has often been accused of failing to modernise, reform and adapt. But, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day, Islamic society in its Middle Eastern heartlands has in fact been transformed by modern ideals and practices. Acclaimed author Christopher de Bellaigue covers 200 turbulent years of Middle Eastern […]

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  • 172. THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF THE SULTAN SALADIN
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    Few of history’s heroes can rival Saladin in his enduring attraction. In the Muslim world he is revered for reclaiming Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. In the West he is famed for his chivalric virtue, despite fighting off the armies of the Third Crusade. Professor Jonathan Phillips brings alive this extraordinary man’s legacy, offering […]

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  • 175. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
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    T.E. Lawrence is famous for Seven Pillars of Wisdom, his personal account of the Arab revolt during World War I. What is less known is that he burnt the first, more intimate, version of his memoire. Highly acclaimed author Anthony Sattin uncovers the story of Lawrence’s pre-war adventures and the personal reasons that led to […]

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