People like to deride agreements like Sykes-Picot as "drawing arbitrary lines on a map", but was it really so arbitrary or was there legitimate reasons to think those borders were reasonable at the time they were drawn?
when did a unique Palestinian national identity emerge, I.e. one that is distinct from a hyper-local tribal-family within a larger Arab/Muslim ethnicity?
You’ve spent decades writing about highly contested subjects. How do you respond when someone questions you in a way that is transparently disingenuous and politically motivated, without giving them the satisfaction of a fully engaged answer or the ammunition they came for?
Hi Simon, what’s your opinion on historical movies?
Do they have a legitimate place in teaching history to new generations, or—like Kingdom of Heaven—do they risk rewriting the past to fit a particular narrative?
The Near East and Middle East have seen a lot of intense religious radicalism for a very long time — going back at least to the time of Jesus, and probably even earlier.
Makes you wonder… is it mainly the geography that keeps driving this?
A common sentiment I hear is that the Middle East has been a mess of violence and instability since The West started meddling there. How much truth is in that claim?
Do you ever think that the big events in history happened because all of the conditions were in place, and that the "leader" doesn't really matter, that time-traveling to kill a young Stalin, Hitler or Robespierre would only slightly shift the unfolding, or that if Beethoven had died in infancy, some other genius would have made very similar masterpieces?
Can you shed any light on the history of the Khazar people’s conversion to Judaism? Anti-Israel rhetoric often claims that European Jews are the decendants of the converted Khazar people, from southern Russia, and therefore allegedly would have no heritage supporting a historic claim to the holy land. DNA analyses of Europenan Jews however appear to support Semitic heritage. Any truth in the Khazar anecdotes?
Please share a detail or anecdote you came across while researching which a helpful or heartless editor excised for the sake of the story, but which you found intriguing or delightful.
Your great-great-uncle Moses Montefiore built the first Jewish neighbourhood outside the walls of Jerusalem. Writing about the last 125 years, was there a passage where you found yourself weighing your own family's place in that story, and did it change how and what you wrote?
Love your work. What has been the constant Russian objective in the Middle East and how does it affect the Middle East today?
People like to deride agreements like Sykes-Picot as "drawing arbitrary lines on a map", but was it really so arbitrary or was there legitimate reasons to think those borders were reasonable at the time they were drawn?
How much of a Flashpoint is Cyprus? Are Greece and Turkey the perverbial India and Pakistan of the Mediterranean?
when did a unique Palestinian national identity emerge, I.e. one that is distinct from a hyper-local tribal-family within a larger Arab/Muslim ethnicity?
You’ve spent decades writing about highly contested subjects. How do you respond when someone questions you in a way that is transparently disingenuous and politically motivated, without giving them the satisfaction of a fully engaged answer or the ammunition they came for?
Hi Simon, what’s your opinion on historical movies?
Do they have a legitimate place in teaching history to new generations, or—like Kingdom of Heaven—do they risk rewriting the past to fit a particular narrative?
What do you think is the biggest source of misinformation in the UK with regards to Middle East history?
A LONG HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS INTENSITY.
The Near East and Middle East have seen a lot of intense religious radicalism for a very long time — going back at least to the time of Jesus, and probably even earlier.
Makes you wonder… is it mainly the geography that keeps driving this?
A common sentiment I hear is that the Middle East has been a mess of violence and instability since The West started meddling there. How much truth is in that claim?
Do you ever think that the big events in history happened because all of the conditions were in place, and that the "leader" doesn't really matter, that time-traveling to kill a young Stalin, Hitler or Robespierre would only slightly shift the unfolding, or that if Beethoven had died in infancy, some other genius would have made very similar masterpieces?
Can you shed any light on the history of the Khazar people’s conversion to Judaism? Anti-Israel rhetoric often claims that European Jews are the decendants of the converted Khazar people, from southern Russia, and therefore allegedly would have no heritage supporting a historic claim to the holy land. DNA analyses of Europenan Jews however appear to support Semitic heritage. Any truth in the Khazar anecdotes?
Please share a detail or anecdote you came across while researching which a helpful or heartless editor excised for the sake of the story, but which you found intriguing or delightful.
Your great-great-uncle Moses Montefiore built the first Jewish neighbourhood outside the walls of Jerusalem. Writing about the last 125 years, was there a passage where you found yourself weighing your own family's place in that story, and did it change how and what you wrote?
How are current events changing how we view the past of the region?