/u/AbouBenAdhem's posts
Why does it seem like most (Ottoman-descended) Turkish minorities are in the Balkans rather than other former Ottoman territories? Does this reflect settlement patterns, or did other Turks assimilate into local Arab populations?
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Henry the Fowler of Saxony is credited with switching from a Carolinian-style central monarchy to the decentralized system of duchies that persisted in Germany to early modern times. Was this system based on earlier Saxon institutions?
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Procopius reports that the Vandal king Hilderic was “a very particular friend and guest-friend” of the future emperor Justinian. Should we understand this to mean that Justinian was hanging out in Carthage, or Hilderic in Constantinople?
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The Romans created the office of emperor because they were nominally opposed to kings. Do other cultures make a categorical distinction between kingdoms and empires, or are we projecting an accident of European history onto the rest of the world?
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Was Thanksgiving a continuous tradition going directly back to the pilgrims via their descendants, or was it revived at some point to serve as a national holiday?
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In the later Roman Empire, what connection did the “senatorial families” outside of Italy have to the actual Roman senate?
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If the whole universe were filled with air at sea-level density—and considering only the optical effects, not the physical ones—what would we see?
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The earth is an oblate spheroid. What effect does it have on plate tectonics when plates move over regions with differing curvature?
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When foreign dignitaries had business with a Roman/Byzantine emperor, where were they put up? Did they pay for their own lodgings, or did the imperial palaces have guest quarters, or did local courtiers volunteer to host them?
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