Ancient Wisdom

In 13th-century Konya, Jalal ad-Din Rumi dictated his six-volume Mathnawi to his scribe Husam al-Din over fifteen years. But something strange happens throughout this 25,000-verse masterwork: stories break off without warning, mid-narrative,...

When Ögedei Khan died in 1241, his widow Töregene did something that baffled visiting European emissaries: she announced a series of messenger relay races across the empire's arterial road system, the Yam. The winner wouldn't become...

In 6th century BCE India, the physician-sage Sushruta documented something radical in the Sushruta Samhita: he prescribed treatments not when patients fell ill, but according to the calendar. His ritucharya system—literally "seasonal...

In 4th century BCE Athens, a philosopher named Diogenes of Sinope made his home in a pithos—a large ceramic wine jar—in the Agora. When Alexander the Great visited him and offered any gift he desired, Diogenes replied: "Stand out of my...

At Camelot's Round Table, according to the thirteenth-century Vulgate Cycle, one seat remained perpetually empty—the Siege Perilous. Any knight who sat there unworthily would be swallowed by the earth or struck dead. For decades,...

In the Hall of Two Truths, beneath the gaze of forty-two divine judges, the deceased Egyptian stood before Anubis and his scales. On one side: a single ostrich feather representing Ma'at. On the other: the human heart, now required to account...

In the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897), Korean women created pojagi—intricate wrapping cloths pieced together from scraps of ramie, silk, and hemp. What distinguished masterful pojagi from mere patchwork wasn't the cloth included, but the...

When archaeologist Arthur Evans excavated Knossos in 1900, he expected to find what every other Bronze Age palace contained: a magnificent throne room where a king displayed absolute power. Instead, he found something that baffled him for decades....

In traditional Aboriginal Australian culture, young men underwent walkabout—a rite of passage lasting anywhere from six months to several years. But here's what most retellings miss: elders didn't send initiates toward specific landmarks...

In the mesas of northeastern Arizona, Hopi farmers developed an agricultural practice that seems deliberately inefficient: planting four separate corn crops in different locations, knowing that at least three would likely fail. This wasn't...