logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2021
41m 5s

The Anglo-Arab Wars

History Hit
About this episode

The half century between 1870 and 1920 was one of conflict between British colonialism and the people of the Middle East and North Africa. In this episode, James is joined by archeologist and author Neil Faulkner to examine the clashes of armies, ideologies and forms of oppression, clashes which would prove fatal. Neil explains this revolutionary history, exploring British imperialism in northeast Africa which has repercussions rippling into the 21st century. Can this war be considered the first modern Jihad?


Neil Faulkner is the author of 'Empire and Jihad: The Anglo-Arab Wars of 1870-1920', Published by Yale University Press.

Up next
Mar 2024
Supersonic Nazi Vengeance: V2 Rocket from Cautionary Tales
We're bringing you an episode of a podcast we think you'll love: Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford. At the height of World War Two, British intelligence began receiving reports that the enemy was developing a rocket weapon. The idea seemed fantastical — resources in Nazi Germany ... Show More
35m 41s
Sep 2023
WW2: How The War Ended
The Second World War officially ended on September 2nd 1945 - and it's estimated that around 3% of the Earth's population perished during the conflict. But what ultimately bought WW2 to an end - and how vital a role did the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki play in obtaining a J ... Show More
38m 16s
Sep 2023
Rwandan Genocide
This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Over the course of 100 days in 1994, it's estimated that between 500,000 and one million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed by Hutu extremists in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Sparked by longstandi ... Show More
54m 30s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2021
Jihad and the British empire
Neil Faulkner reveals how the Anglo-Arab Wars of 1870-1920 helped give rise to the first modern jihad Neil Faulkner, author of Empire and Jihad, describes how Britain’s entanglements in the Middle East and north Africa in the decades leading up to the First World War helped trigg ... Show More
37m 44s
May 2020
M’hamed Oualdi, "A Slave between Empires: A Transimperial History of North Africa" (Columbia UP, 2020)
In light of the profound physical and mental traumas of colonization endured by North Africans, historians of recent decades have primarily concentrated their studies of North Africa on colonial violence, domination, and shock. The choice is an understandable one. But in his new ... Show More
41m 41s
Apr 2022
The Foundations of Modern India
The greatest anti-imperial rebellion of the nineteenth century, The Indian Rebellion of 1857, witnessed mass violence against the British. Ninety years later, Indian freedom was founded on a deadly fratricide that singularly spared the outgoing masters. As a result, India’s found ... Show More
25m 46s
Sep 2021
Shay Hazkani, "Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War" (Stanford UP, 2021)
In 1948, a war broke out that would result in Israeli independence and the erasure of Arab Palestine. Over twenty months, thousands of Jews and Arabs came from all over the world to join those already on the ground to fight in the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces and the Arab L ... Show More
1h 22m
Oct 2022
The Long History of African and Caribbean People in Britain
There remains a tendency to reduce the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain to a simple story: it is one that begins in 1948 with the arrival of a single ship, the Empire Windrush. Yet, from the very beginning, from the moment humans first stood on this rainy isle, ... Show More
27m 57s
Dec 2019
Lawrence of Arabia
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss T.E. Lawrence (1888 – 1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia, a topic drawn from over 1200 suggestions for our Listener Week 2019. Although Lawrence started as an archaeologist in the Middle East, when World War I broke out he joined the British ... Show More
51m 46s
Dec 2019
Lawrence of Arabia
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss T.E. Lawrence (1888 – 1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia, a topic drawn from over 1200 suggestions for our Listener Week 2019. Although Lawrence started as an archaeologist in the Middle East, when World War I broke out he joined the British ... Show More
51m 46s
Dec 2022
Gabriel Polley, "Palestine in the Victorian Age: Colonial Encounters in the Holy Land" (I. B. Tauris, 2022)
In this episode I have interviewed Gabriel Polley, winner of the Ibrahim Dakkak Award for the best essay published in 2021 by the Jerusalem Quarterly.Narratives of the modern history of Palestine/Israel often begin with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Britain's arrival in ... Show More
1h 7m
Feb 2010
Ibn Khaldun
Melvyn Bragg and guests Robert Hoyland, Robert Irwin and Hugh Kennedy discuss the life and ideas of the 14th-century Arab philosopher of history Ibn Khaldun.Ibn Khaldun was a North African statesman who retreated into the desert in 1375. He emerged having written one of the most ... Show More
42m 15s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami