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Antarah ibn Shaddad, a killer, a lover, and an epic hero, was also one of early Arabic literature’s most famous poets.

Prior to the dawn of Islam, the Arabian Peninsula had a great poetic tradition, with many genres, and many poets who are still celebrated and studied today.

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.