Founding Encounters
Welcome to Founding Encounters, a new MBN series about the lesser known stories of the relationship between the Middle East and America in its earliest years. To mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, our series will take you through the harbors of Morocco, the narrow bazaars of Tunis, the tobacco fields of Virginia, the naval battles in the distant seas, and much more. These experiences shaped the newly-formed nation’s perception of the Middle East and its people, and as you’ll see from this first episode – on Jefferson’s Quran – the region also helped shaped the new nation coming to life in 1776 in ways that aren’t fully appreciated. Today the Middle East is itself in the midst of a historic transformation, with the U.S. playing an inordinately large role. History helps give us some important perspective.
Welcome to Founding Encounters, a new MBN series about the lesser known stories of the relationship between the Middle East and America in its earliest years. To mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, our series will take you through the harbors of Morocco, the narrow bazaars of Tunis, the tobacco fields of Virginia, the naval battles in the distant seas, and much more. These experiences shaped the newly-formed nation’s perception of the Middle East and its people, and as you’ll see from this first episode – on Jefferson’s Quran – the region also helped shaped the new nation coming to life in 1776 in ways that aren’t fully appreciated. Today the Middle East is itself in the midst of a historic transformation, with the U.S. playing an inordinately large role. History helps give us some important perspective.
Morocco: America’s First Friend
Throughout American history, few years have been as bleak as 1777. On land, British troops had seized several major cities. They had captured New York, then Philadelphia – the de facto capital of revolutionary America. Washington’s battered army retreated to Valley Forge, 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Of the 11,000 soldiers in the army, a […]
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