I just got two interesting looking books as an early birthday present - my brother in law gave them to me before heading home to Boston:

I've been considering buying the second book (on Tamerlane) for awhile now. I hadn't seen the first one, which covers the Abbasid dynasty - which was to the pre-eminent dynasty of the pre-Ottoman Islamic Empire. I don't really know much about Tamerlane at all - he charted a path of conquest through the Islamic world during the 14th century - about the same time as the Hundred Year's war was raging between England and France.

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