Archive - FX Subscriber Essays of Foreign Exchanges

Subscriber Essay: The Brief History of the Suri Empire

In a small change from our usual routine this essay is not the product of a subscriber request but of my own addled brain, though it comes by way of a…

Aug 8, 2020 •

July 2020

Subscriber Essay: the Hagia Sophia

I’ve unlocked this essay mostly for people who’ve stopped by from over at Discontents. For access to more essays like this, including FX’s back…

Jul 19, 2020 •

June 2020

Subscriber Essay (now unlocked): What do we know about the NYT's Russian bounty bombshell?

I’m very bad at predicting which stories are going to become A Big Deal and which aren’t, so I try not to do too much of that in the regular newsletter…

Jun 28, 2020 •

Subscriber Essay: the Mongol invasions of Iran

Today’s essay topic is a joint effort from The Anon: Could you do an essay on the Mongol invasions of Iran and the lasting psychological impact this has…

Jun 7, 2020 •

April 2020

Subscriber Essay: the history of the Hajj

I know it’s been a long absence but I’m happy to finally be able to start doing subscriber essays again on a more regular basis. If you’re unfamiliar…

Apr 4, 2020 •

January 2020

Subscriber essay: Mandatory Differences

Subscriber SL asks: You've touched a little in some asides in your podcasts about how the French and British ran their interwar 'mandates' (i.e…

Jan 26, 2020 •

Subscriber essay: a Qasem Soleimani Q&A

In the wake of the US drone strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani a few days ago, I thought subscribers might appreciate a little more…

Jan 5, 2020 •

November 2019

Subscriber Essay: The Jadid Movement

After a long, overwork-induced hiatus, the subscriber essay is back. Our first question has to do with another 19th-20th century modernizing movement…

Nov 17, 2019 •

October 2019

Columbus and the Islamic World

How the Age of Discovery affected the Ottoman Empire and beyond.

Oct 13, 2019 •

August 2019

Subscriber Essay: Iranian succession developments

I’m doing something a little different for this week’s essay. Instead of picking a topic from our new list, to which I’ll get eventually, I’m…

Aug 24, 2019 •

Subscriber Essay: the Hajj and Islamic Pilgrimage

As we’re out of essay topics and I’ve been very remiss in not posting a new thread for requests, and as I’m too wiped out to write a whole essay today…

Aug 10, 2019 •

June 2019

Subscriber Essay: Nestorianism and the Mongols, part 2

I realize it’s been a couple of weeks since we left off and I apologize for that. If you need to refresh your memory, we’re working on this question…

Jun 23, 2019 •

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