Welcome to the Crusades, Episode 3: Baghdad and Cairo, 1096

Danny and Derek recently reunited with Eleanor Janega and Luke Waters of ⁠We’re Not So Different⁠ for a special mailbag episode of their cross-pod collaboration, ⁠Welcome to the Crusades: The First Crusade⁠. We have already posted ⁠Episode 1⁠ and ⁠Episode 2 ⁠in the feed, so we figured we’d give everyone the third episode to further entice you to dig into this miniseries. Enjoy! We leave the Crusaders behind temporarily to grapple with conditions in the Near East of the late 11th century. We’ll discuss the emergence and disintegration of the Great Seljuk Empire in Baghdad as well as the rise of the Fatimid Caliphate in Cairo, with additional focus on the situation in Jerusalem as the Crusaders began their journey.