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Leading up to the birth of the Prophet Muhammad in about 570 CE, the Arabian Peninsula was an increasingly populous and globally interconnected region.

In Episode 110, Literature and History host Doug Metzger answers dozens of listener questions about making the show, books, and how and why the podcast came to be.

Episode 109 brings our long season on Late Antiquity to a close, reviews the past 24 programs on the beginnings of the Middle Ages, and introduces our new season on early Islamic History.

One of the great scholars of Late Antiquity, Isidore (c. 560-636) left behind a compendium called the Etymologies, an encyclopedia of his epoch’s knowledge, a book second only to the Bible during the Middle Ages.

The Merovingian court poet Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530-600), at work in Francia in the late 500s, shows us the world of the Middle Ages blooming from Roman ruins.

The second half of the History of the Franks (591) is a deep dive into the grime and intrigue of the Merovingian dynasty, written in a style that’s as medieval as it is classical.

Gregory of Tours (c. 539-594) completed The History of the Franks in 591. The long book’s account of Clovis and the Merovingian Dynasty has been one of our most important sources on early Medieval History, ever since.

Second only to the Tanakh, the 63 tractates of the Talmud are the main text of Rabbinic Judaism, containing the teachings of thousands of ancient rabbis.