Anyone else here interested in European history?

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Amin Al Husseini died in 1974. Here : Yasser Arafat attending the funeral of his mentor Amin Al Husseini. By his side is the Mufti of Lebanon. Amin Al Husseini's legacy includes the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qeida, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the education of Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat. In his lifetime, he presided over the Arab League, the Muslim Brotherhood and the World Islamic Congress.

Fascinating! Should we open another thread for near or middle eastern history? In a range of centuries there are lots of areas that I would be interested in looking at more closely.

i love history...but from a practical standpoint. i study up on history that relates to today's current events...i'm gonna end up studying the entire world eventually. middle east is very convoluted so i get stuck there for a while....it ties in to european history, though. ottoman empire ties into european history as well....and it's quite amazing to see how the ottoman empire went to one of the shining examples of racial and gender equality for its time to what it now is.

Good points there, skafather; the Ottoman Empire at its height embraced both much of the Middle East and North Africa, but also much of eastern Europe (they came as far as the gates of Vienna, a crucial point in history). Tolerance in some ways (consider their welcoming of Jews expelled from Spain after its reconquest was complete compared to the actions of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile) was indeed noteworthy. Also consider their administrative system using people from a range of different ethnic backgrounds. Nevertheless there needs to be qualification; as with other groups, things were not uniformly humanitarian under the Ottoman Turks! The treatment of the Armenians was admittedly quite late in the Empire's history, but there are other faults such as the manner of the formation of the yeni seri (jannissaries) as well - obviously as with all human empires. This may provide an interesting bridgehead to link together various ideas that people have been talking about discussing here. Do you know much about the Arab Revolt?

The partition of the former territories of the Ottoman Empire after World War I might indeed be an interesting point from which to view many of the later developments, which have clear repercussions for our time. But the empire also stretched back centuries. There may be room to bring in many events.

as with every empire...it fell...and as it fell, there were problems that arose.

i'm not familiar with the arab revolt yet....i know the fall of the ottoman empire wasn't pretty and the results are still being felt today.

I like history generally, and I have a particular fondness for Henry II and Elizabeth I of England.

Timelines are great - Ivan the Terrible proposed to Elizabeth I, did you know that? The things they don't bother to teach us in school!

Elizabeth I played marriage proposals for political gain. Accepting any of them would have been tantamount to abdication, since she would have played second fiddle to her husband. Ivan was surprised that she didn't leap at the chance to exchange Elizabethan England (Shakespeare, Marlowe, Essex, John Dee, Raleigh, Drake, Burleigh, et al) for Ivan's Russia and a chance to be his consort without power.

You ask whether any in particular interests me about the reigns of Henry II and Elizabeth I. Only everything!

They have these things in common:
- took the throne in spite of strong opposition and danger.
- long reign of peace (after a big of niggling at the beginning)
- strong hold on the Treasury.
- stability and fairness of law enforcement.
- spectacular personalities.
- travelled throughout kindom, knew things at first hand
- could and did outwit courtiers and nobles.

yes - i recently read a book on the history of switzerland (far more interesting than most people would think, and far less peaceful) afterspending a few months there (i wanted to learn how a country divided by both language and religion managed to become so rich as well as probably the only real democracy in the world). also interested in the period between the world wars (Mark Mazower's Dark Continent is very good on this period). also intersted in the history of some non-european countries.

European history in how it relates to world history, although the European Union is also an interesting phenomenon.