David v Goliath

Throughline

NPR

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the year 1258, more than 100,000 soldiers amassed outside the great Islamic city of Baghdad. They were the Mongol Army, led by the grandson of the fearsome Genghis Khan. Within weeks, they'd left the city – which had stood as the center of power and commerce in the Muslim world for nearly 500 years – smoldering in a grotesque heap. And that was just the beginning. The Mongols would continue to push West, conquering Muslim cities until there was just one left in their way: Cairo.

In the valley where it is said David once met Goliath, an unlikely group of slave soldiers fought a battle that would decide the fate of the Islamic world. A battle you may never have heard of that's as important to world history as D-Day or Gettysburg. It's a story full of personal and societal rivalries, political scheming, vengeance, and treachery – a real-life Game of Thrones. The Battle of Ayn Jalut.

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Transcript

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0:30.0	A soldier stands on the walls of the largest city in the world.
0:52.4	Black dotted specks start to appear across the horizon.
0:58.0	The columns of people stream into the city kicking up massive clouds of dust behind them.
1:04.0	They wear animal fear on their faces.
1:10.0	The soldier squins his eyes trying to make out the shadow behind the clouds.
1:17.0	And then he sees them.
1:26.0	A wave of horses topped with black clad men.
1:30.0	An endless stream of steel emerges from the horizon.
1:34.0	The noises grow louder.
1:36.0	The galloping, drumming the earth alive.
1:54.0	The hair on the back of the soldier's neck stands up.
1:58.0	His mind goes to his family.
2:00.0	He's heard of these people before about the atrocities they've committed.
2:05.0	But never did he think they would actually come.
2:10.0	The myth is now reality.
2:12.0	The Mongols have arrived.
2:15.0	Baghdad is under siege.
	...

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