The Forum

At its height, the Aksumite Empire extended across the northern Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands, and even included parts of Sudan, Somalia and modern-day Yemen. From the first century BC to the seventh or eighth centuries AD it was one of the most important trading hubs in north-east Africa. It was also one of the earliest states in the world to adopt Christianity. In fact the Persian prophet Mani named the Aksumite Empire as one of the “four great kingdoms on Earth” together with Persia, Rome and China. But despite its power and reputation, we’re only now beginning to understand more about the lives of the people who lived there.Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss the Aksumite Empire and its legacy are Helina Solomon Woldekiros, Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri; Felege-Selam Solomon Yirga, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee; and Dr. Niall Finneran, Reader in Historical Archaeology and Heritage Studies at the University of Winchester

Umm Kulthum’s powerful voice and talent for communicating poetry was spotted early, when she accompanied her family to perform at weddings and special occasions. It wasn’t long before she was performing in the elite salons of early 20th-century Cairo, although her father dressed her as a boy to protect her from any unwelcome interactions with strangers.In the Egyptian capital she quickly associated herself with the most talented musicians of the day, and from then on she never looked back. She explored the major Arabic song forms of the period, collaborating with composers and poets. She dabbled in film, negotiated record deals, and when public service broadcasting began in the 1930s, she secured herself a monthly slot on national radio. In awe of her talent and mesmerising presence, the Arab world practically came to a standstill whenever she was heard on the airwaves.Joining Bridget Kendall to explore Umm Kulthum’s life are Virginia Danielson, author of The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song and Egy

The word 'swashbuckling' is often used to describe the novels of Alexandre Dumas the Elder, the creator of D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers, the Count of Monte Cristo and the Man in the Iron Mask. But Dumas himself led a life as colourful as many of his gallery of rogues, villains and heroes. Having grown up in poverty, he found employment in the household of a future king of France. He was prolific on the page and pretty active away from it. At first with a series of highly successful plays and then with serialised novels, his production house churned out hundreds of thousands of pages of gripping narrative. He had pet projects like building a mansion and theatre, he had countless mistresses and he frequently found himself in legal disputes and on the run from debt collectors. In the 150th anniversary year of Dumas’ death Rajan Datar explores the writer's life and work with Claudie Bernard, professor of French Literature, Thought and Culture at New York University; Daniel Desormeaux, professor of Arts and

Cuneiform is an ancient writing system distinguished by wedge-shaped marks made into clay. It developed over 5,000 years ago in Ancient Mesopotamia. At its height it was used to write languages across the ancient Middle East, from Iran to Syria to Anatolia in Turkey. But cuneiform writing fell out of use about 2,000 years ago in favour of alphabetic scripts. When scholars in the 19th century finally managed to redecipher it, they discovered fascinating insights into the culture and rituals of people living in the ancient Middle East, unlocking texts that have changed our understanding of history, including The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Code of Hammurabi and The Amarna Letters of Ancient Egypt. And cuneiform has even seen something of a revival in modern-day Iraqi visual culture. Joining Rajan Datar to discuss cuneiform script are Professor Eleanor Robson of University College London, Dr Mark Weeden of SOAS, University of London and Ahmed Naji, author of 'Under The Palm Trees: Modern Iraqi Art with Mohamed Maki

When the fifteenth century German entrepreneur Johannes Gutenberg pioneered the printing press, he made an indelible mark on the history of communication. Here was a way to print pages in high quality and high quantities, using methods more efficient than had ever been seen before.Rajan Datar and guests explore the story of how the printing press was born, and how it changed our world - from the birth of the modern book to the rise of the information society, and the transformation of fields including scholarship and religion.Rajan is joined by art historian Hala Auji, publisher Michael Bhaskar, scholar Cristina Dondi and the writer John Man.[Image: A bas-relief of Johannes Gutenberg checking his work while his assistant turns the press, c.1450. Credit: by Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

The story of a young mother who unwittingly left behind a vast medical legacy. Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in Baltimore in 1951 and though she never gave consent to her tissue being used for research, doctors at the time found that her unusually virulent tumour had extraordinary properties. As her cells multiplied in labs around the world, they helped make possible all sorts of medical breakthroughs, from the polio vaccine to cancer drugs and IVF treatment. But it took the Lacks family decades to discover what was going on, and the story raises questions for all of us – about medical ethics, institutional racism, and our right to privacy.Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss this remarkable story are: Henrietta Lacks' grandson David Lacks Jnr who's on the board of the HeLa Genome Access Working Group; the award-winning science writer, Rebecca Skloot, whose book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks brought the story to the world's attention a decade ago; and Sir John Burn, Professor of Clinical Genetics at New

Teaching not by rote but through play? That's credited to the 17th-century Czech pastor and thinker called Jan Amos Comenius. Splitting schoolchildren up into year groups? That's Comenius. Universal education for all, rich and poor? That's down to him too. Nearly four centuries ago, Comenius came up with principles of modern education but they were only implemented hundreds of years after his death. That these ideas are now so widely accepted obscures the fact that they were ground-breaking - indeed too radical - in his day. Comenius lived through turbulent times: the devastating Thirty Year served as the backdrop to much of his life. He was suffered personal tragedy during the bitter battles between Protestants and Catholics in Europe and spent most of his adult life in exile. Joining Rajan Datar to analyse the contribution to modern thinking made by Comenius in this, the 350th anniversary year of his death are Dr. Vladimir Urbanek, Head of the Department of Comenius' Studies and Early Modern Intellectual H

A Phoenician princess, who fled into exile to escape the cruel king of Tyre, sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to North Africa, where she founded the great city of Carthage in the ninth century BC. Well, that is one story about Dido, or Elissa, as she is known in today's Lebanon and Tunisia. Another, from the Roman poet Virgil, puts her at the centre of a tragic love story: first entranced, then abandoned by the wandering Trojan hero Aeneas, Dido curses him and takes her own life. So who was the real Dido? Was she a powerful independent queen, or a victim - a spurned lover? And did she exist at all? Bridget Kendall is joined by Josephine Quinn, professor of Ancient History at Oxford University, and the author of the book In Search of the Phoenicians; Helene Sader, professor of Archaeology at the American University of Beirut, and the author of The History and Archaeology of Phoenicia; Roald Docter, professor of Archaeology at Ghent University and the editor of Carthage Studies; and Boutheina Maraoui Te

The multi-talented Paul Robeson could have turned his hand to pretty much anything he set his mind to: lawyer, athlete and linguist were just some of the career paths he could have taken. But he chose to become an actor and singer, and in doing so reached into the lives of huge numbers of people as one of the most popular American entertainers of his time.Outspoken on the issues of racism, colonialism and the rights of workers, he used his popularity to campaign against the injustice he saw in many countries across the world – not just injustice suffered by his fellow African Americans. During the Cold War, his support for Soviet-style communism was deemed unacceptable by the American establishment, and some set out to destroy his career. Joining Bridget Kendall to examine Paul Robeson’s life are Dr Gerald Horne, the Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston and the author of Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary; Dr Shana L Redmond, Professor of Musicology an

Many of us can find the time of day quickly and accurately but where did the idea of time keeping originate and how did our ancestors manage without the instant access we take for granted today?From ancient shadow and water clocks to the latest super accurate optical clocks, Bridget Kendal explores time keeping with the Curator of the Royal Observatory in London, Dr Louise Devoy; the Director of the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, Dr Silke Ackermann; and watch and clock expert Grégory Gardinetti from the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva.Photo: World Clocks (Credit: EyeWire, Inc.)

‘We accept reality so readily - perhaps because we sense that nothing is real.' A typically paradoxical quote from the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges whose works have become classics and an influence not just on many Latin American novelists but on countless authors around the world. Yet although he is one of the most analysed figures in literature, even his greatest fans struggle fully to explain his writing. So who was Jorge Luis Borges? And what is it that makes his writing so compelling?To find out, Bridget Kendall talks to three Borges experts: Dr. Patricia Novillo-Corvalán, from the University of Kent, author of Borges and Joyce, An Infinite Conversation; Prof. Evelyn Fishburn, from University College London, author of Hidden Pleasures in Borges’s Fiction; and Edwin Williamson, Professor at Oxford University and editor of the Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges.(Image: Jorge Luis Borges in 1973 Photo: Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images)

Life behind bars in English prisons in the early nineteenth century was, to put it mildly, grim. Prisons at the time were often damp, dirty and over-crowded. Common punishments included shipping convicts to colonies like Australia - and many crimes carried the death penalty. And the poor suffered most of all, because they couldn’t buy privileges like extra food rations. Into all this walked a woman known as the "angel of prisons", Elizabeth Fry. She was one of the major driving forces behind a new way of thinking about prisons – one that stressed that improving conditions for prisoners and treating them with humanity would lead to better outcomes and lower re-offending rates. A Christian philanthropist from a large Quaker family, her ideas were taken up across much of Europe, and she became something of a celebrity in Victorian England.Joining Rajan Datar to discuss her work and legacy are: Averil Douglas Opperman, author of a biography of Elizabeth Fry called 'While It Is Yet Day'; Criminal barrister, Harry

Greenwood was an African American success story: a thriving, wealthy district of Tulsa. Over the course of two days at the end of May 1921 it was the scene of looting, rioting and murder. After 18 hours the area was razed to the ground by vigilantes. One eye witness said it looked like the world was coming to an end with bullets.Nobody to this day has been able to establish the true number of deaths. Some put the figure in the hundreds, with casualties on both sides. The community rebuilt itself however, and today it’s the focus of a multi-million dollar investment and education programme.Joining Rajan Datar to examine the events of 1921 are Carol Anderson, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and the author of White Rage; Hannibal B Johnson, lawyer and author of numerous books on the city’s history including the forthcoming Black Wall Street 100: An American City Grapples With Its Historical Racial Trauma and John W Franklin, cultural historian and former senio

Queen Tamar was one of Georgia’s most iconic and colourful rulers, a powerful medieval sovereign who controlled large parts of the Caucasus and the eastern side of the Black Sea and forged strong cultural links with both the Byzantine West and the Persian South. Her influence extended beyond the battlefield: she presided over the last phase of the Georgian ‘Golden Age’ which saw the building of classic Georgian churches and a flowering of the Arts that produced one of Georgia’s most important poets. So who was Queen Tamar? How did she rise to power and outmanoeuvre her enemies? And why do the myths about her rule publicised by her faithful chroniclers persist till today? Bridget Kendall is joined by Dr. Ekaterine Gedevanishvili, Senior Researcher at the National Centre for the History of Georgian Art in Tbilisi; Alexander Mikaberidze, Professor of History at Louisiana State University; Dr. Sandro Nikolaishvili, researcher at the University of Southern Denmark, who works on retracing connections between the By

The Huguenots gave the word 'refugee' to the English language - they were French protestants escaping religious persecution, who fled from France to neighbouring states between the 16th and 18th centuries. Despite their early experience of violence and religious upheaval, they are widely celebrated for their contribution as migrants, famously as silk weavers and silversmiths, traders and teachers.Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss the Huguenots and their global legacy are three experts: Owen Stanwood is Associate Professor of History at Boston College in the United States and is the author of 'The Global Refuge: Huguenots in an Age of Empire'; Ruth Whelan is Professor of French at Maynooth University in Ireland, where she researches the religious and intellectual culture of French Protestants between 1680 and 1730; and Kathy Chater is a London-based historian and genealogist. She’s the author of 'Tracing Your Huguenot Ancestors'.Image: Engraving depicting French Huguenot refugees as they landed in Dover Imag

As scientists around the world look for ways to combat COVID-19, the only human disease ever to be eradicated by vaccination could provide us with some insights.Since 1979 the world has been free from smallpox. But before the WHO’s concerted effort to eradicate the disease, it claimed millions of victims every year. It’s estimated that 300 million people died from it in the 20th century alone, and those who survived were often left with disfiguring scars or sometimes blind. Such was its destructive power, some commentators have argued that smallpox changed the course of human history, wiping out indigenous populations and allowing imperial nations to colonise new territories with little resistance. The English doctor Edward Jenner developed the first vaccine against smallpox in 1796. This procedure laid the foundations for immunisation programmes which have saved hundreds of millions of lives ever since, by giving people protection against a whole range of diseases - not just smallpox.Joining Bridget Kendal

There is a great deal of mystery surrounding the poems attributed to the female Kashmiri poet, mystic and sage known as Lal Ded or Lalla. There are no records of her life but what is beyond doubt is the vitality, wisdom and endurance of her work. Her poems, usually just four lines long, have been around for centuries and remain so popular that some of them have passed into everyday speech in Kashmir. Lal Ded’s poems are also celebrated for their independence of thought and spirit and for challenging stereotypical images of what counts as female poetry during the Middle Ages. Rajan Datar is joined by leading Kashmiri writer and translator Neerja Mattoo; poet Ranjit Hoskote, author of a complete rendering of Lalla's poetry into English; Andrew Schelling, professor of poetry at Naropa University in Colorado who has translated and edited Indian devotional poetry for many years; and Dean Accardi, professor of history at Connecticut College who specialises in medieval Kashmir.(Photo: a woman at sunset. Credit: rvi

The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is one of the greatest wonders of the ancient world. It is the largest pyramid ever built and even today, with advanced satellite and thermal imaging and other high tech science, we don’t know everything about the pyramid- exactly what’s inside or how it was built. To explore the history of The Great Pyramid - also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, after the Pharaoh who commissioned it as his tomb - Rajan Datar is joined by Salima Ikram, Distinguished University Professor and Egyptology Unit Head at the American University in Cairo, space archaeologist Sarah Parcak, a National Geographic fellow and Professor at Birmingham University Alabama in the USA, and Professor Joyce Tyldesley, an archaeologist and Egyptologist from the University of Manchester in the UK.Photo: The Pyramids at Giza (Getty Images)

”People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it.” Ray Bradbury has been acclaimed as the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream but, as the quote above shows, he regarded himself as the author of modern philosophical fables, rather than a sci-fi writer. In his dystopian works, such as Fahrenheit 451, he holds up a mirror to contemporary society and then transposes it into fantastical and futuristic scenarios. Bradbury was a prolific writer who tried his hand at everything from poems and novels to TV and radio scripts but it’s his early short stories which he produced in his twenties that are perhaps the most imaginative.To mark the centenary of Bradbury’s birth, Rajan Datar is joined by three Bradbury experts to help him navigate through the author’s prodigious output: Professor Jonathan Eller from Indiana University who is also the Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies; Dr. Miranda Corcoran who teaches American literature

In 476, the last of the Roman emperors in the West was deposed; in 1776, historian Edward Gibbon wrote “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, and Rome’s fate became a major point of comparison for all empires. In Gibbon's view, instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed precisely 1300 years before, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. Ever since, there has been a fascination with what changed in Rome in 476 and why, and whether there were more significant changes earlier or later than that date and, importantly, what stayed the same.In this edition of The Forum, Rajan Datar explores the ideas about Rome’s Fall with Sarah E. Bond, Associate Professor of History at the University of Iowa, USA; Meaghan McEvoy, Lecturer in Byzantine Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia; and Peter Heather, Professor of Medieval History at King’s College London, UK.(Photo: Sack of Rome by the Visigoths led by Alaric I in 410. Coloured engraving. Credit: Prisma