Byline

Book of World History

Editorial Byline

These articles are published under the Book of World History byline rather than an individual writer credit. They're researched, written, and reviewed following our editorial and fact-checking process.

Articles by Book of World History (504)

• Origins of the Turks: From the Eurasian Steppe to the Seljuk EmpireLong before Istanbul, the ancestors of the Seljuks were horse-mounted herders drifting across the Eurasian steppe, thousands of kilometers from Anatolia. Over a thousand years, confederations named Xiongnu, Rouran, and Göktürk rose and collapsed in turn, until one exiled clan leader named Seljuk turned a band of nomadic Oghuz Turks into the sultans of Baghdad.September 27, 2026
• How Egypt Got Arabified: From Hieroglyphs to Coptic to ArabicEgyptian was written and spoken for over four thousand years, longer than any other language in history. Today it's gone, replaced by Arabic. But the standard explanation — that the Arabs conquered Egypt in 642 and Egyptians converted to Islam — can't be right, since a tenth of Egypt is still Christian and speaks Arabic anyway. Here's the real, much longer story.September 27, 2026
• Kievan Rus' - The First East Slavic State and Fight Over Who It Belonged ToUnpack the dramatic sweep of Kievan Rus' history. From Norse river-traders carving out a medieval empire to the modern geopolitical battle over who owns its legacy, explore how this massive state rose, converted, and fell to the Mongols.September 26, 2026
• Cambodian-Vietnamese War: 1978 Invasion to 1989 WithdrawalIn December 1978, Vietnamese armor rolled across Cambodia and ended the Khmer Rouge genocide in just fourteen days. What followed was a Cold War absurdity: the liberators were condemned as pariahs, while Pol Pot’s representatives retained Cambodia's seat at the United Nations.September 26, 2026
• Spread of Islam: Fourteen Centuries of Conversion, Trade and EmpireArab armies conquered a huge swath of territory within a century of Muhammad's death, but conquest and conversion turned out to be almost entirely different processes. As late as 750, fewer than one in ten people living in the newly conquered lands of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and Spain were actually Muslim. This is the story of how Islam spread to roughly a quarter of humanity over the following fourteen centuries, largely through trade, migration, Sufi missionaries and the slow collapse of older religious institutions, rather than the sword.September 22, 2026
• Indochina Wars: Forty-Six Years of Conflict From 1945 to 1991Most people know the Indochina Wars only as the Vietnam War, the middle chapter of a nearly unbroken forty-six year conflict running from the Second World War to 1991. A French colonial war gave way to a Cold War proxy fight between two Vietnams, which gave way in turn to a war between Vietnam, Cambodia and China, former communist allies left with nothing in common but a shared border. Here's how one war kept setting the terms for the next.September 22, 2026
• Elizabeth Báthory: The 1611 EvidenceThe infamous blood-bath legend didn't appear in print until 115 years after Elizabeth Báthory's death. Yet, court records contain 300+ witness statements accusing her of horrific abuse. Was the 'Blood Countess' a genuine sadist, a wealthy noble target of a cash-strapped king, or both? Here is the raw evidence.September 21, 2026
• Early Muslim Conquests: Why Arab Armies WonEarly Muslim conquests explained: within a century of Muhammad at Medina, Arab armies shattered the Sasanian Empire, stripped Byzantium of its wealthiest provinces, and pushed Islam from the Indus to the Atlantic. Examine the debated causes behind this lightning expansion.September 21, 2026
• Iblis in Islam: The Sufi Defense of SatanIblis's story sounds simple at first: God creates Adam, orders the angels to bow, and one refuses. But for over a thousand years, Muslim scholars have argued fiercely over what that refusal actually means, whether Iblis was an angel or a jinn, whether his fall was predestined by God or a genuine act of free will, and whether his stubborn refusal to bow to anyone but his Creator makes him, paradoxically, the story's purest monotheist. This is a tour of that debate, from Quranic exegesis and Sufi poetry to Persian miniature painting and modern film.September 21, 2026
• Lizzie Borden Trial 1893: The EvidenceDuring the Lizzie Borden trial 1893, a Fall River jury took just ninety minutes to acquit her of hatchet murders. Between those two facts sits a hatchet head nobody could tie to the killings, a burned dress, and an inquest ruled inadmissible. Here is what the evidence actually showed.September 20, 2026
• Boston Tea Party: What Actually Happened in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773Think the Boston Tea Party was a protest against high taxes? Think again. Get the actual Boston Tea Party facts: why the tea was actually cheaper under the 1773 Act, how a corporate bailout sparked a revolution, and the exact cost of the 342 chests dumped into the harbor.September 20, 2026
• What Is the Uncanny Valley? 3 Tested CausesDid modern humans evolve revulsion toward near-human faces to survive encounters with rival hominin species? We evaluate the hard fossil, genetic, and neurological evidence behind the uncanny valley—separating survival science from internet folklore.September 20, 2026