to understand the geo atrategic and ideological relationships touched on here and to be able to hypothesize and investigate the linkages requires an understanding of thr history of the world few possess - a little overhelming; makes me wonder - does the Khan Academy address, avoid, lack content, or obfuscate such dynamics?
I'm not familiar with the Khan Academy so I can't comment on that.
Otherwise, best I can offer is starting with Huntingdon's "Clash of Cvilisations" and Said's "Orientalism" and then working backwards from their sources.
But this is such a vast topic: we're talking about ca 200 years of history, in a region from the west coast of Africa to the Iranian-Afghan border in the east, adding on Turkey and Arabia Major and Minor plus the entire Levant, the world's second-largest religion, and dozens if not hundreds of ethnic and political groups - all of it mixed together, and to really get into it, you'd need to be able to read French, German, Arabic and Turkic primary sources on the topic.
Which is why I pointed out that I'm a layman, or rank amateur on this area - that's not false modesty, the topic is daunting in complexity and scope and makes Europe's history for the corresponding period look like easy street.
Its not as complex for the entire region as you imply. The world outside of the great cities was tribal. Having spent a reasonable time with bedouin culture and not wanting to dox myself too much can say the back wash of the power centres has a curious familiarity to those all over the world that live in the rural world.
Ottoman history falls from the transition of power from Western and Eastern Roman and the rise of Islam. So much so that Turkish elite customs of the female elite wearing hijab became normal in the backwash parts of the empire.
The Quran does says to be modest and not a black blob. The Niece of the Prophet led armies and was an amazing warrior.
I agree with your assertion that the large cities require more language skills but the power of those cities came from the unwashed masses
to understand the geo atrategic and ideological relationships touched on here and to be able to hypothesize and investigate the linkages requires an understanding of thr history of the world few possess - a little overhelming; makes me wonder - does the Khan Academy address, avoid, lack content, or obfuscate such dynamics?
I'm not familiar with the Khan Academy so I can't comment on that.
Otherwise, best I can offer is starting with Huntingdon's "Clash of Cvilisations" and Said's "Orientalism" and then working backwards from their sources.
But this is such a vast topic: we're talking about ca 200 years of history, in a region from the west coast of Africa to the Iranian-Afghan border in the east, adding on Turkey and Arabia Major and Minor plus the entire Levant, the world's second-largest religion, and dozens if not hundreds of ethnic and political groups - all of it mixed together, and to really get into it, you'd need to be able to read French, German, Arabic and Turkic primary sources on the topic.
Which is why I pointed out that I'm a layman, or rank amateur on this area - that's not false modesty, the topic is daunting in complexity and scope and makes Europe's history for the corresponding period look like easy street.
Its not as complex for the entire region as you imply. The world outside of the great cities was tribal. Having spent a reasonable time with bedouin culture and not wanting to dox myself too much can say the back wash of the power centres has a curious familiarity to those all over the world that live in the rural world.
Ottoman history falls from the transition of power from Western and Eastern Roman and the rise of Islam. So much so that Turkish elite customs of the female elite wearing hijab became normal in the backwash parts of the empire.
The Quran does says to be modest and not a black blob. The Niece of the Prophet led armies and was an amazing warrior.
I agree with your assertion that the large cities require more language skills but the power of those cities came from the unwashed masses