William Dalrymple
@willdalrymple
Scottish historian & art historian; @EmpirePodUK.bsky.social podcaster & Jaipur Lit Fest co-director. Visiting Fellow at All Souls, Oxford. Writes the occasional book.
New from @EmpirePodUK THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS linktr.ee/empirepoduk
Summer sale is here: get an annual Empire Club membership for an extra 20% off with code SUMMER26. That's ad-free listening, early-access, every bonus episode, and full access to our exclusive members' series. Sale ends August 31st, so grab it before summer's over.
In the second episode of our Algeria series, anita & I explore how the harsh reality of colonial rule in Algeria paved the way for war. They discuss the infamous Sétif massacres, how World War Two radicalised young Algerians, and the creation of the National Liberation Front. linktr.ee/empirepoduk
Why did VE Day celebrations trigger horrific massacres? How did the French defeat in Vietnam inspire Algerian revolutionaries? linktr.ee/empirepoduk
Who were the ‘pied noirs’ and how did they come to dominate Algerian society and seize the richest land? What was life like for the millions of Muslim Algerians living under French rule? linktr.ee/empirepoduk
New from @empirepoduk.bsky.social The Algerian Revolution: Repression & Rebellion podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/3...
Summer sale is here: get an annual Empire Club membership for an extra 20% off with code SUMMER26. That's ad-free listening, early-access, every bonus episode, and full access to our exclusive members' series. Sale ends August 31st, so grab it before summer's over.
In the first episode of this series on the Algerian Revolution, @anitaanand.bsky.social & I explore how France colonised Algeria. We discuss what Algeria was like before the French, the trivial diplomatic incident that sparked the invasion, and early Algerian resistance. linktr.ee/empirepoduk
How did the French colonise Algeria? Was the Algerian economy built on slavery? Who was the revolutionary Sufi leader who united Algerians against the invaders? What atrocities did the French commit in the mountains? linktr.ee/empirepoduk
With Churchill's connections to the Bengal Famine hitting the headlines this week, it's worth revisiting our @empirepoduk.bsky.social episodes on the history. Listen to Episode 117 with kavita puri to find out more
What if the God of Abraham — worshipped today by half the human race — is the product not of a single revelation but of three thousand years of transformation, from the sun-temples of Egypt through the Ark of the Covenant to the rivers of Babylon? linktr.ee/empirepoduk
To make sense of all of this — Akhenaten, Asherah, Zoroaster, and the long strange journey to monotheism — we called Francesca Stavrakopoulou whose book God: An Anatomy transformed how we understand the origins of God. linktr.ee/empirepoduk
Angels, demons, the apocalypse, the Last Judgement — ideas that would transform Judaism, and through it Christianity and Islam, may have entered the tradition not from Sinai but from Persia. linktr.ee/empirepoduk
And then came exile. When the Israelites were carried off to Babylon in the 6th century BCE, they encountered Zoroastrianism, the Persian faith built around a cosmic struggle between a supreme god of light and the forces of darkness. linktr.ee/empirepoduk
Because the story doesn't run straight from Akhenaten to Abraham. Before Yahweh became the sole God of Israel, the ancient Canaanites worshipped a whole pantheon — El the sky father, Baal the storm god & Asherah goddess of the sea who was once venerated as Yahweh's own consort linktr.ee/empirepoduk
To answer that question, we called Francesca Stavrakopoulou — whose book God: An Anatomy transformed how we understand the origins of the Hebrew God — joins me to trace monotheism back to its deepest roots. This is one of the most extraordinary conversations we've had on Empire.
Even Freud was obsessed with it, spending his final years in exile arguing that Moses himself was Egyptian. So is there a thread running from Amarna to the Shema? From the Aten to Yahweh? linktr.ee/empirepoduk
The Great Hymn to the Aten — composed at Akhenaten's court around 1350 BCE — contains verbal parallels with Psalm 104 of the Hebrew Bible so striking that scholars have argued over them for a century. linktr.ee/empirepoduk
300 years ago, a Egyptian pharaoh did something no ruler in history had done before. He abolished the entire pantheon & declared one god supreme. Akhenaten’s revolution lasted 17 years — and then his successors tried to erase him from history entirely. But did the idea survive? linktr.ee/empirepoduk
New from @EmpirePodUK THE ORIGINS OF GOD Where did the idea of one God come from? The concept that there is only one, that all others are false, that monotheism itself is possible? This week on Empire, we go looking for the answer. It leads somewhere extraordinary.
The Irresistible Rise of the East India Company William Dalrymple Tickets & Tour Dates - @FaneProductions @howtoacademy Tickets available now for Chester, Tunbridge Wells, Guildford, Richmond & RGS London share.google/hWgfptpYNfE7...
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Anita and I are joined by Dr Campbell Price, author of Golden Mummies of Egypt, and Curator of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at Manchester Museum, to discuss the life of King Tut. linktr.ee/empirepoduk
Friends & followers in Birmingham- a last cache of tickets available for the Irresistible Rise of the East India Company tonight at 7.30 at Birmingham Town Hall (a rather amazing 790 tickets already sold!) Next venue on the @faneproductions.bsky.social tour, Storyhouse, Chester on Weds 10th
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
Anita and I are joined once again by Aidan Dodson, author of Nefertiti, Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt: Her Life and Afterlife, to discuss the iconic queen. linktr.ee/empirepoduk
Her image has been reproduced by countless artist. How did she become a pharaoh in her own right? And why is there still controversy over her statue? linktr.ee/empirepoduk