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Religion

A place, an object, an everyday problem. Find a small story that opens up a bigger picture.

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11 results · Showing 1–10

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Ibn Battuta: A Traveller and the Limits of His Account

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Ibn Battuta encountered courts, ports and religious communities. The making of the Rihla helps explain both its remarkable reach and its limits.

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Kilwa and Calicut: Two Ports, Different Worlds

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Compare goods, authority, visitors and evidence at two ports whose shared maritime connections did not erase their different local worlds.

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Kilwa: A Swahili City Connected to the Indian Ocean

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Palaces, mosques and imported objects reveal a city whose inhabitants helped organize exchange between African hinterlands and the wider ocean.

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Who Controlled the Press? Printers, Licences and Censorship

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A registered poem, a moving clandestine press and an order to burn books reveal the overlapping powers behind printing in Tudor and early Stuart England.

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Did Gutenberg Invent Printing? The History Behind the Claim

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Gutenberg transformed European book production. But a Chinese scroll and a Korean book show why inventing printing is a much larger claim.

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The Printing Revolution: More Books, Unequal Access

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From a Buddhist scroll to European workshops and regulated presses, printing enlarged the possibilities for sharing knowledge. Who could use them remained a question of people, resources and power.

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Eumachia of Pompeii: A Woman’s Power Written in Stone

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A woman’s name on Pompeii’s Forum was more than a signature. Eumachia’s inscriptions and statue reveal how money, religion and public honour could make a life visible.

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