askhistorians

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It’s to my understanding that in the Middle Ages, many rural peoples in Europe still continued practices from old pagan religions and incorporated them into Christianity. Did early Muslims also incorporate practices and beliefs from their former religions into Islam? What did it look like?	3047
I’ve noticed that Scotland in the early Middle Ages is sometimes referred to as Pictland or the Kingdom of Alba. Who were the Picts and why are they differentiated from the succeeding Scots? Were the Picts native to Scotland? What do contemporary sources say about their society and culture?	605
In the USA, there are strong immigrant populations that have become firmly part of pockets of American culture, the Italians and the Irish, etc. In the Roman Empire, were there regions where barbarian immigrants had strong effects on the local culture, such as that they became a staple part of it?	54
How was Muscovy/Tsardom of Russia starting in the 1500s able to maintain control over the vast eurasian steppe, that historically, was the domain of nomadic empires like that of the gokturks or the khazars?	31
Would a medieval village govern itself for the most part? How would the villagers go about this? Would the head of the village be the one who dealt with higher officials? Were there village heads? Are there any records on this topic?	26
How did the Magyars come to settle in the Pannonian Basin? Who were the Locals and what was their relationship with the newcomer Magyars? What did early Magyar society, culture and political organization look like? How extensive and impactful were the Magyar Raids?	21
Why did the viking raids start so abruptly around the 790’s and escalate so frequently in the 800’s?	17
When does Shia Islam begin to appear religiously and politically distinct from Sunni Islam? How about other forms of Islam, like Ibadi Islam?	17
I’ve read that an event called a solar superstorm disrupted whole telegraph systems in various countries both in 1859 and in 1921. What were the contemporary accounts of this event like? What did they attribute it to?	15
I’m a poor Jew living in the Russian Empire in the 1850’s and I want out, how would I go about immigrating to America? What means of emigration and transportation would be available to me? How would I pay for it?	13

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