Andrew Marr’s History of the World

Episode
Episode 4 - Into the Light
Broadcast Info
2012 (59 mins)
Description
Andrew Marr reaches the Middle Ages revealing how the Vikings explored and pillaged from Northern Europe to North America. The Vikings laid the foundations of powerful new trading states - including Russia. Travelling to Kiev in Ukraine, Marr sees how the Vikings were able to travel along the Dnieper River and, under the Viking warrior Oleg, traded with Constantinople. This was the Golden Age of Islam with the knowledge of ancient civilisations from India, Persia and Greece built upon by Islamic scholars in Baghdad’s House of Wisdom. Marr discovers Muslim Scientist Al-Khwarizmi measuring the circumference of the earth with the aid of an astrolabe. Marr visits the Mezquita Mosque in Cordoba demonstrating the accomplished Islamic architecture. The battle between religions and empires starts again, with Muslim Turks, the Ottomans, pushing deep into once Christian lands. At the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Marr reveals how Ottoman leader Mehmet the Second invaded Constantinople. Marr tells of the African empire’s trading towns like Timbuktu and Djenné on the River Niger, telling the magnificent story of the King Mansa Musa, the wealthiest who ever lived putting Africa for the first time on European maps. In Mongolia, Marr reveals the great conquests of Genghis Khan, creating one of the largest empires the world has ever seen. In Venice, adventurer Marco Polo recounts his travels to the East, when he visited the Great Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis. In Europe, the Renaissance takes place, with Leonardo Da Vinci demonstrating a new way of thinking and painting the world famous ‘The Last Supper’.
Genre
History; Philosophy and Ethics; Architecture; Science; Technology; Religion; Art and Design

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Andrew Marr’s History of the World". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/83197 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)