In 1221 on the plains of current-day Turkmenistan lay the city of Merv. The town faced a Mongol besiegement under one of Genghis Khan’s sons and opened its gates in the hopes of experiencing mercy.

After the Ottoman's defeat the Serbian Lazar at the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, their new Sultan Bayezid I continued their ...

For centuries empires were the dominant form of political organisation. In the west there is some degree of familiarity with the British, French and German empires, and the empires of Spain and ...