An interview with the writer and historian Derek Davison, who helps us look past the myths and orientalist fantasies to see the Middle East as it actually was on the eve of Napoleon's arrival. Topics include: the unique and dysfunctional regime of the Mamelukes, religion, Ottoman decline, and the 18th-century Middle Eastern way of war.

You can find Derek's foreign policy writing for LobeLog at: https://lobelog.com/author/derek-davison/

His commentaries on Ibn Battuta are here: https://therihlah.com/

And his international affairs/history site is here: https://attwiw.com/

He is also on Twitter as @dwdavison9318

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices