Archeologist and professor of history at the University of Houston Frank L. Holt gives voice to objects from the past--some ordinary, some extraordinary--in our popular series, accompanied by illustrations from artist Norman MacDonald. 

This award-winning series presents six historical female leaders of Muslim dynasties, empires and caliphates: Khayzuran & Zubayda; Radiyya bint Iltutmish; Shajarat Al-Durr; Hurrem Sultan (or Roxolana); Nur Jahan, and Sayyida Al-Hurra. Written by Tom Verde with art by Leonor Solans. 

Until the 1990s, the reed marshes of Iraq were Eurasia's most extensive wetlands, with a unique ecology that supported the Marsh Arabs' distinctive way of life. The world was exposed to the community in 1964 after Wilfred Thesiger's explorations led to the book "The Marsh Arabs." Then the marshes were drained and the people scattered. Today, Azzam Alwash, the son of an Iraqi hydrologist, works with international aid groups and Iraqi authorities to restore the desiccated marshlands and to educate others about this majestic and fragile culture. 

Special Edition 2021

Discovering the origins and stories behind the the world's most-popular spices. 

This six-part, award-winning series is selected and adapted from the original 41-part “El Viajero Histórico,” an idea and production by Ana Carreño Leyva in El Legado Andalusí: Una Nueva Sociedad Mediterránea, the magazine of the Andalusian public foundation El Legado Andalusí, based in Granada, Spain, from 1990 through 2010. The travelers include Ibn Jubayr; Abu Hamid Al-Garnati; Ibn al-Shaykh; Al-Ghazal; Ibn Hazm, and Ibn al-Khatib. Each story has its own author, and all art is by Belen Esturla.