askhistorians

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Missionaries to Ming China reported that even beggars lived like kings did in Europe. Assuming this to be hyperbole, how prosperous was China under the height of Ming power?	3114
On the 14th October 1956, Indian politician B. R. Ambedkar and half a million of his supporters converted to Buddhism on masse, beginning the Dalit Buddhist movement. How seriously did contemporaries view this act and what social implications did it have for those that took part?	227
Ramsay Macmullen makes the argument that Christianity limited the range of acceptable expression for women in Late Antiquity rather than widening it. How well supported is this idea in the scholarship?	121
Mike Duncan describes the Russian aristocracy at the time of the Revolution as being obsessed with occultism and Oriental mysticism. How deep was this trend and when did it begin?	69
What kind of lifestyle would a Prince-Bishop or Prince-Abbot of the Holy Roman Empire around the year 1300 enjoy? How much time would be spent on religious affairs compared to secular and what kind of pleasures would be considered acceptable?	61
The late Roman poet Pamprepius won fortune and political power in Constantinople as a magician. What kind of magic might he have performed and what kind of audience would have sponsored such a controversial art?	51
Before Constantine, changing the Roman religion was something mad, doomed Emperors like Caligula and Heliogabalus did. Can we tell if contemporaries though this would just be another fad?	46
Descriptions of the 1996 Afghan civil war often contrast the tolerant but corrupt Northern Alliance with the fundamentalist but clean Taliban. They often focus on the ‘Bacha Bazi’ custom which the Alliance supposedly tolerated but the Taliban abhorred. Does this description have its basis in truth?	19
How deep were cultural relations between the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Thailand during the Second World War? Did they leave any significant legacy after the end of the war?	17
The late Roman poet Pamprepius won fortune and political power in Constantinople as a magician. What kind of magic might he have performed and what kind of audience would have sponsored such a controversial art?	15

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