How did one extraordinary prince create Saudi Arabia?
Why were a million Armenians killed during WWI?
How did an elderly cleric overthrow the Shah and become ruler of Iran?
Why did the Arab Spring fail?
Could Trump's peace deal lead to a new Middle East?

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE MAKING OF TODAY'S MIDDLE EAST: A SPELLBINDING HISTORY FROM THE BESTSELLING, PRIZEWINNING HISTORIAN AND MASTER STORYTELLER, SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE

The Middle East has forever been the source of religions, prize of empires, spark-wheel of conflicts, well of radicalism and epicentre of our tumultuous world. No other region has such a hold on our imagination nor such a propensity to unleash mayhem. Yet few know its real history; fewer still understand its variety and cosmopolitanism, its complexity and interconnectedness.

In The Cauldron, Simon Sebag Montefiore delivers a fresh and unique history of the entire region in all its diversity, from 1900 up to the present day. Taking the listener on a spectacular journey from the Ottoman sultanate to the Trump presidency, from Morocco to Iran, this is a dazzling panorama of faith and fanaticism, creativity and tolerance, dictatorship and democracy brought to life by an extraordinary cast of kings, warriors, poets, terrorists and peacemakers.

This is the essential story of how the Middle East of 1900 became the Middle East of today - and tomorrow.

Who was the last great Ottoman sultan? Why did Faisal become king of both Syria and Iraq? How did Britain and France carve up the Middle East? Why did the Kurds never get a state? How did Ataturk create Turkey? Was Nasser the greatest Arab hero? Why was Algeria's war of independence so violent? Who killed Sadat and Rabin? Could a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine ever work? How did Hezbollah dominate Lebanon? Is UAE the most successful Arab state? Why did Bin Laden attack the USA; why did the USA destroy Saddam? Who created a caliphate in the twenty-first century? What happened to the Christians of Iraq? Will Israeli democracy survive? Why is the Sudanese civil war so brutal? Is Erdogan keen to recreate an Ottoman empire?

©2026 Simon Sebag Montefiore (P)2026 Hachette UK Limited