Scottish historian & art historian; @EmpirePodUK podcaster & Jaipur Lit Fest co-director. Visiting Fellow at All Souls, Oxford. Writes the occasional book.
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"The Nabateans are a silent partner in everything that goes on in the high summer of the Ancient period” - Bettany Hughes 
Featured in every Nativity scene in school plays, churches, and art around the world, the Three Wise Men are key characters in the Christmas story. But they are actually only mentioned once in the Bible, appearing in Matthew’s gospel. He describes them not as Kings, not as generalised Wise Men, but specifically as Magi.
As a child, Akbar was dislexic: no one was able to teach him how to read. But he still loved literature - the Indian and Persian epics and Ferdowsi poetry and were read to him by travelling picture showmen and discussed in detail. This seems to have inspired his love of visual arts: ‘one of the biggest paradoxes of art history: the prolific production of illustrated manuscripts was initiated by a man who could not read them himself’.
In 1506, Babur decided to pay a visit to his relatives in Herat. For the first time in his life, he found himself feeling like an unsophisticated, mud-booted provincial. His cousins paid little attention to the unfashionable new arrival and seemed unimpressed by his new conquests.
Our first episode, out today, is on: 
Often called Arabic numerals, the modern number system we use today actually originates in India. Whilst in the west they were using Roman numerals, in India they were using numbers 1-9. 
🇰🇭 Born on the Mountain of Lychees in Northern Cambodia, the mighty Khmer empire dominated most of mainland Southeast Asia, stretching as far north as southern China, and outsizing the Byzantine empire at its peak.... 
How did an Indian religion, Buddhism, become the court religion of China? The answer is linked to the violent rise to power of China’s only ever woman Emperor. Raised by pious Buddhist parents, Wu Zetian left a trail of bodies in her wake as she charted a path to absolute power. 
A whole genre of movies is based on a relatively short period of nineteenth-century American history. But what is the real story behind battles between Native Americans and white settlers during westward expansion? 
Born in poverty at a time when the Roman Empire was in danger of cracking up and disintegrating, Helena was set for a life of obscurity as a stable hand, bar maid, and, according to some, a prostitute. Yet, in the most improbable tale she rose through the social hierarchy to be proclaimed Empress, then later canonised, and declared by some as Queen of the World and Mother of Empire.
Villages here still give each other menhirs, though today they usually arrive by truck 🚚 rather than wooden rollers from the quarry. 
It should also be pointed out that the same phrase which @michaelgove condemns as “the legitimisation of an extremist position which intimidates and leads to hate” appears as article 1 of the charter of the ruling Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Time to break off diplomatic relations and apply sanctions surely?
1979 was the year that changed everything in the Middle East, setting it on the path to today. In Iran, the Islamic Revolution established the nation as a theocracy that sought to defend Shi'ism across the world. 
The session revolves around her celebrated @LRB essay
Unlike Buddha Sakyamuni who has achieved Enlightenment and left this troubled world "like a flame blown out by the wind," Avalokitesvara is available in a time of danger, especially while travelling, if a devotee calls on him for help. Avalokitesvara is especially popular around coastal sites, as he was renowned as the patron of sailors, the Saviour from Perils, and for saving his devotees from shipwreck.
2. Nag nobleman stepping gingerly into the jaws of a makara. Mathura, 100CE 
Three great religions have come out of Persia: Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and Manichaeism. All of them have hugely influenced world history. 
2. One of the 24 Priests of Heaven (gondar, Ethiopia, 17thC) 
Born the son of a tribal chieftain, Cyrus would go on to become a titanic figure in world history. He took Persia from being a minor regional force to the first superpower the world had ever seen. 