*listened on Audible*

This one is tricky for me to review from a content point of view as it's a new subject, a new history and a new geographical area, so my knowledge on the current writing is non-existent. It could be completely full of inaccuracies, biases and other things, but in my infancy of knowledge in this area, I couldn't tell you.

From an enjoyment point of view I can be more certain. This was a dense piece of work which combined broad strokes with finer detail. The content suited me as, being a subject I know little about it wasn't *too* bogged down in minutiae that I didn't understand.

There were lots of names and I remember very little of them beyond the ones I already recognise from my patchy knowledge of middle east history and religious education!

But it's the kind of writing I like when approaching a new subject - it gave shape to the history of the area, helped me to understand how that history fit into my wider understanding of global historical events and it aided me to narrow down areas I might want to look into in the future.