I am an avid history reader from Turkey. We have really good books here. I can easily confirm that this content is distilled the most important events and turns in Middle East history successfully. Amazing work. I am really surprised how you could make this amount of history to fit in just one hour time. Brilliant CaspianReport. Thank you.

This is amazingly accurate. I'm Egyptian, born in a conservative family, and I was taught the history of Islam when I was young. I didn't spot any inaccuracy during your hour-long video. This must've been an enormous task for you. Many many thanks.

I went to a school with mixed European Arabic curriculum as a kid. I remember that the teachers in the Arabic section were biased towards rote learning (you had to parrot the teacher in exams to get a good grade), the ones in the European section wanted you to do your own thinking. This cultural traits is so deeply ingrained that the Arabic section teachers denied that they expected rote learning.

I watch this every year, it's a great piece that shows how civilizations are shaped by ideas and progress is never assured.

It is a crime against history that this is place and time period are so rarely discussed in western curricula. Truly some of the richest history I have heard in a good while.

Man, so much incredibly interesting history that I've heard nothing about as a Swede. This is amazing.

This video really brought me to tears. It is very rare for a researcher to be completely neutral, engaging and vibrant while narrating their work in an interesting manner. Professional scholarship is still alive and well. May it flourish some more for posterity's sake. Blessings to you, CaspianReport.

This is the best, and clearest, explanation of what happened to Islamic Scholarship and Culture I have ever seen. This is a fantastic Documentary, well above the standard I frequently see on TRshow. Well Done!

2 years later, 3rd listen, still one of the most relevant historical account of the islamic golden age I have had the privilege to watch!! I really appreciate your way of describing and analysing Shirvan!! Cheers from Montreal :)

Outstanding research and production, I can't find this level of content anywhere else. Thank you very much for your objective and well narrated lessons!

This is quickly becoming one of my favourite channels ever, on youtube or cable networks! I began watching your videos in mid 2020, and just got sucked into watching your earlier contents as well. Great work! Love from Vietnam.

This is great, it would be really helpful to have a small timeline in the corner somewhere that indicates what year we are discussing throughout your narration. That way you don't have to interrupt the discussion to mention years.

The amount of research you must have done to cover this level of nuance and detail is impressive to say the very least.

Kudos! This is a great overview of the historical, theological, political and philosophical aspects of the Abbasid Caliphate and how they developed over time. Furthermore, it shows how outside events influenced the Caliphate and what was happening inside it, as well. Quite well done!

Congrats on your video =)) I loved the way it gave clarity to the early centuries of Islam and the Golden Age which is not appreciated as it should. The narration is also a joy to hear, you have a true talent there. A couple of questions with purely constructive intention and for the sake of discussion: 1. This is the first I hear of an organized plan of the Khwarazmian empire to provoke on purpose the Mongol invasion, to bait the Mongols into attacking. To my knowledge, the Shah and the Khan had already agreed in peace when the Governor of Farab executed an entire Mongolian trade mission and the invasion ensued. Do you have any sources for your story? 2. Isn't it a little far fetched to blame the Mongols for the European eastern trade reaching India? The Fall of Baghdad is in 1285, Portugal didn't even have a navy then. Madeira is discovered in 1417 and Vasco Da Gama reaches India in 1498. I would accept the destruction of the Middle East by Timur as a reason but the Mongols were too early a disaster to blame. Isn't it more reasonable thought to hold responsible for the mismanagement of trade roots the Mamluks in Egypt and later the Ottomans?

Originally I thought it was another video about nostalgia of Islamic golden age but it has really provided a clear outlook of political history that allowed science to rise in the Medieval Near East. Thank you Shivan, as always.

Shirvan, I bow to the breadth of your research and superb presentation. I’m mostly on TRshow for technology, but your work stands in its own class and has expanded my knowledge immensely. I thank you so much for that. Wishing you the best always.

Amazing content. Learned so much for Islamic and Middle East history. Thank you. When comparing Muslim science back then and the Taliban now.... World would have been much better place if this knowledge was preserved and develop further.

This entire lecture is worth a PhD thesis.

Definitive, comprehensive and entertaining. This is one of the most well made documentaries out there. The amount of research and knowledge condensed into one hour astounds me. This is a PhD thesis in video form.

Excellent monologue. Subtitles would have been good for people like me who are not familiar with Arabic names. Once I came to think about a quote by Bertrand Russell that fear was the basis of all religion, I was not afraid to become atheist and had a heavy mental burden of confusion lifted from me after years of trying to understand theology and religion. Fifty five years later I feel even more grateful that I read that remark. All religions contain fundamental truths, but knowing right from wrong is a rational process. High morality doesn't require a belief in the supernatural, its more a process of rational reasoning and education. Fear of the unknown is a fundamental human reaction. All cultures have their holy writings and origin of The Bible and The Koran need to be seen in the context of other cultural holy writings. The book The story of God by Karen Armstrong gives a good history of religious belief in God. I am happy to regard my self as a Christian atheist, as I appreciate all the good things in Christianity, and no doubt there are many in other religions. But a science degree answered a lot more questions than did religion.

This is the most even and equitable discussion of science and Islam that I have seen. Thank you for all the hard work that you devoted to this video.

this is one of the most comprehensive and best formulated studies I have encountered. You should be awarded for your efforts

Simply an amazing video. Aside from many takeaways, one that stand out to me is the framework of your story. In Indonesian curriculum, the history of Islamic civilization is told with the framework of the rise and fall of Islamic empires and nations. Your story really makes me think of alternatives to that framework.

This is a little too good for TRshow, why don't I see this guy on professional platforms? No seriously this guy deserves more.

This is one of the best videos I have watched in a long time. The grasp of broad sweeps and global trends, illustrated by innumerable details and brief biographies - that's how it should be done. Excellent work.

I can't believe that we can find this kind of premium content for free. Amazing. Keep up the good work, Shirvan!

Thank you for all your work😊 I didn't realize how interesting history could be.

Amazing video, I'm from latin america and I had very little history of the middle east in my school. It was so refreshing to learn so much about this fascinating culture

OMG. i feel this is so insightful. And well explained, with an attitude that's not patronising nor antagonistic, but with an eager attitude to tell stories so that we can learn from the past. And the animations, videos, music are top quality. Looks like more than 6 months work to research, organise, create all this. if i had a hat, it would be off for you.

Superb quality content. Just a little criticism from my side - when you are talking about some regions of the ancient map - it would be very informative if named regions would be highlighted at same time.

This is why I love humanity, this man has absorbed enough data to be considered something similar to a biological google, and we get it all in an hour. Thank you my friend.

Thank you for this great piece of work. It’s pieces like this that makes it incredibly obvious to naysayers how useful the internet is for learning.

One of the best informational channels out there. This guy really puts in the work. You have a faithful viewer here, always.

What an AWESOME mini-documentary!! Shirvan, thank you so very much for all the effort you made in putting all this together. It was informative, it was inspiring, and even visually *beautiful* !!! I learned a lot thru it, thank you very very much. Cheers from Mexico!

11/10 not only astoundingly detailed investigation, professional production and clear narration but even beautiful poetry, pure art and cience together hand by hand. This cannot be improved. I have watched just 1 of this channel videos, and im subscribing.

Depressing that the Muslim world has devolved to such a state today.

Extremely informative and interesting... I've always had a fascination with ancient Middle Eastern history..this documentary certainly helped to improve my understanding of Middle age Middle East history and given me a better understanding of the current situation now to

I've been following your channel for years and just now discovered this episode. This is truly intersting and congrats for the great work!

I am entirely ignorant about this time in history; this was all very informative to me. I find it so tragic that an entire people could have fallen so dramatically. I hope within our lifetimes we can see prosperity for the common people of the middle east.

I knew some of this in bits and pieces, yet your exposition is extremely illuminating and told in a very good way. I thank you for this presentation and your research.

I am in awe at the amount of research that you had to have done to make this. Outstanding work.

Wow Shirvan, just wow! This is some amazing academic visual work. I salute you for this exquisite production, narration, and condensed valuable information.

Amazing video. I learnt a lot of history about my own faith. Thank you so much for making me more aware.

I am only half way through, but this is the best exposition of Islamic intellectual history that I have come across. Thank you.

There are few channels so brilliant in analysis as is this one. Enlightenment in Islam was brilliantly covered. Splendid. I request you to kindly make some content on eastern histories of India and China, for an oriental bias often misses the point in western analysis of these areas. Thank you for the great work..

After learning about people coming from all over the globe to study early medical procedures in places like Isfahan , this has always been an interesting subject to me.

Calling Damascus steel as Tamil steel and naming Gujarat for sandalwood (although more consequently for spices) shows how much in depth they researched. Spices might be purchased from Alexandria and swords from Damascus but their journey began in different places in Indian subcontinent. Nice. 10/10 on research.

I am impressed with all the emotions that come while learning this history. I have learned so much about the history of the Middle East from watching this, which is not well taught at school in the Americas, and it has let me with so many things to reflect. Thank you so much.

Impressive man. As a latin american living in Europe, experiencing both the good and the no so good from the Muslim world present here, I am thankful of this channel for helping me educate myself and confirm what I had known in my heart. In the end is just ignorance what brings about evil and pain among brothers. And hopefully in the future we will bring ignorance, and irrational fundamentalism to it's knees.

Great documentary, thank you Shirvan and Caspian Report. It summarises a thousand years in an hour! and included everything in a very nice sequence... amazing!

Interesting balanced research not biased in order to discredit Islam based on erroneous information unlike many other channels out there, Muslims have to be aware of. Jazak Allahu khayran

Awesome, balanced and informative! Thank you. Message understood, human history is indeed a tragic tale to tell. Long live science and humanity.

Great video, I must thank you for the time & effort that you put into this. It's so sad that the teaching of history always seems to be so biased. Growing up & going to school here in the USA, they literally don't even so much as mention any of this part in world history. Albeit, the brief mention of the Crusades & that Gengis Khan & the Mongols conquered the Middle East. If it weren't for an awesome world history teacher that I had my sophomore year of high school, I would have been totally oblivious to these events. I remember my teacher telling the class somewhere midway through the year and saying, "Now class we're going to do something that most other teachers won't have you do. For the next we we're going to put our textbooks down & we're going to study a time & place that our books don't cover." He actually put together his own class curriculum on these very events in this Era. It was such a great experience, & now being older, more mature, & more aware of how the world works, it gives me an even greater sense of appreciation for that teachers efforts & dedication to truly trying his best to teach the subject that he did. If only we had more teachers like him, we might grow up to understand each other a little bit better, & who knows maybe even learn to be a bit more empathetic & compassionate for each other & each other's cultures.

Splendid video. I'm a documentary film director and I must say this is superb research and more importantly pieced together in a good storyline and sequence. With a proper budget, this should be a netflix documentary broken down to 2 part episodes. As always, love your content. Salute your work.

Easily one of the best documentaries I ever get to watch. I've been avoiding it for its length, but know I regret that very much.

Your video is what keeps from time to time my faith in humanity. Great work.

I had muslim friend he was extremely smart kid at school he was a mathematical genius, but he moved to Saudi to pursue islamic study in university. I asked him why he didn't try to apply for MIT or STEM related dicipline since he's so good at science. He told me science is the work of the devil and he doesn't want to be damned to hell. I am totally floored.

Who are the 958 people who downvoted this? One of the best history videos on any era I have seen.

Really incredible content, your channel is a gold mine for geopolitics, not sure why it took me so long to find it.

This material is great! Thank you! One request: Can you include some more text titles, anchors, and headings in the video, and labels on the maps? Sometimes it is difficult to keep track of the exact locations and time periods you are describing at any given moment. For example, having a timeline appear on the screen occasionally would be fantastic!

Incredible video! I would say that it seems to take for granted the critical roles that philosophy and theology played in providing the proper soil for the development of the natural sciences.

I listened again to your report and was even more impressed. What was even. More impressive was the interweaving of cause and effect on society both short and long term. I have often wondered how and why the Muslim world once the center of science engineering and learning to a scientific backwater which was overwhelmed and colonized by the European nation states. This video makes it more understandable.

The world is in a repetitious loop- things never change at the core- just the tastes and languages. Great presentation. Thank you.

Brilliant! To find a coherent and contiguous lesson on this subject is rare and so greatly appreciated. It's ironic that as the pendulum of time continues it's arc, the west seems to be descending towards orthodoxy and counter-rationalism.

thank you brother. you have done tremendous work , i as a Muslim didnt know these things, now i know the reasons why Muslims left behind from science . its lack of rationality. i wish rationality starts teaching in our schools and other social places.

This is truly a fascinating account of Islam and science on the eastern part of the middle ages. I was more familiar with Spain. Now I realize how much I need to learn.

This was a great piece of work. Covered a lot in such little Time. one of my favorite channels by far

Excellent video! Never thought I'd be interested in this, but you really drew me in. Very well researched and told.

Documentaries like this is why I suscribe to your channel. Islam has a vast and rich history and you were able to present it in a way that both critically analyzed it but showed it the respect it deserves. Brovo on a well made Documentary

Nothing but love, admiration, and gratitude for the Muslim peoples who laid the groundwork for human advancement.

You guys have done many wonderful mini documentaries but this one takes the term "masterful" to a whole new level!👍⭐ This should be a standard part of the history curriculum in as many schools in every country on the planet as possible. It's given me a whole new perspective on the history of Islam. Brilliant!

Superb content!! Although it was a sad story for muslims but i enjoyed it. Your channel deserve at least 10million subscribers. Keep it up and best of luck.

Thanks for this wonderful summary if the Islamic history. This is by far your most remarkable work, and it's not of lack of the previous video you created! To summarize: circulation of ideas and goods is like oxigen to the body of a culture. Remove this free flowing circulation (the silk road) and the cultural spirit of a whole region would suffucate. Something to reflect on by certain modern protectionist even in the core of Europe.

Centuries of understanding and interpretation in just over 1 hour !!! 👍

You are a really smart guy. You do very thorough video's. Always interesting and informative. Thank you for doing this types of videos. By learning people's culture and history week and then understand why they act a certain way in the modern time

A absolute timeless classical piece of history we have here .

You give a refreshingly nuanced picture of the historic relationship between different Islamic communities and the sciences. Thanks for your hard work.

Amazing fast paced overview, so many stories you could tell in more detail. Just watched for the second time. Filled in lots of gaps for me. Thanks.

Fantastic vid. My dad has asked this very question many times. What happened to the Arab civilization? I've pieced together several of the key factors but this is the first overview of the decline of middle eastern science i have seen. And provided so much additional details. I find it unfortunate that's schools in the US don't spend anytime covering history that isn't western in nature. T

The contribution of Persians to the Islamic Golden Age is very exquisite and unparalled in many ways! Truly a giftef and unique people! 💯

I just watched this video the second time and once again i am fascinated by the quality and detail. And once again i am hooked in to that topic, can someone recommend some book that go in to even greater details and the different aspects of that period? Or also comprehensible books about the great minds of that time like Ahmad ibn Hanbal or el afarabi etc..

One of the most important documentries for any civilization to understand...ever...

An enlightening narrative of an extremely complex subject, broken down and analyzed in a simple, coherent and objective manner. Scholarship at its finest. More grace as you continue to do God's work.

Amazingly generous and thorough content, you are a fantastic human being , thank you ! 🙏

Fantastic, informative video. Keep them coming please sir. Thanks for your time and work.

Thank you for making this❣️. It is time muslims like myself caught up with the sciences and create great societies

Simply brilliant analysis and presentation. Excellent historical narration.

Thank you for making this video. I needed the points presented in this video to argue why the islamic nations where once the centre of knowledge and science of the known world and how it declined.

Hi, i am from Peru and II love your videos, this one specially was amazing. In this part of the world most of the history teached is european history, and is a bit difficult to find a kind of documentary about the islamic world like this last video. thnx continue like that

This has to be the most carefully produced video I've ever watched on anything....makes me feel like I'm on TRshow premium.

The effort you put in is incredible. Thank you

Thank you so much for all the information collected from the pages of Islamic history! but I wish we as Muslims should rise once again should learn from history and made no mistakes and lead the world once again we are left behind

You provided me with a perspective I never had the opportunity to experience. I can't thank you enough.

Absolutely the most profound thing you said in this video is how Muslims idolize the past without being aware of what precisely made them great in the first place. It's like seeing the effect without being aware of the cause; or participating blindly in a rite without knowing the meaning of it

Great work. I did a research paper in college on the consequences of the Mongol invasion to the Middle East. It's a fascinating subject.

This is outstanding thank you for this! It has taught me so much, and so fast! I am really interested in how the western world may have be influenced with how the Turks took power and a stand, and more, so the west has a natural history of hatred with anything not their norm. Having a fear of these parts of society taking what is theres too.

This is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, well done sir, well done!

My take-away from this is that neither rationalism nor irrationalism are inherent in religions; religions are a part of human culture, and change over time given material and social conditions. Hopefully, this helps people to avoid bigotry and to promote compassion for one another.

Thanks for this video. I'm a Muslim and I am always interested in the past of the Muslim world. It's saddening to see the state of the nation today, caused by a multitude of factors. I hold pride in the harmonious blend of knowledge and faith of the past, and it truly deserves to be called Golden Age. Inshallah I hope one day it can be brought back and the regions plagued by warfare and tyrannous rulers will prosper again. Children of Iraq and Syria can learn and study and we'll go back to authentic Islam as the Prophet PBUH preached 1400 years ago