Picture, above: The gateway of Shihr.  Ash-Shihr is a coastal town in Hadhramaut, southern Yemen. It was a part of the Qu'aiti Sultanate before the unified Yemen was formed.  Ash Shihr was involved in the export of frankincense in ancient times, to be traded as far as China. The Chinese writer and customs inspector Chao Ru-gua wrote on the origin of frankincense being traded to China:  "[It] comes from the three Dashi [Arab] countries of Murbat, Shihr, and Dhofar, from the depths of the remotest mountains. The tree that yields this drug can generally be compared to the pine tree. Its trunk is notched with a hatchet, upon which the resin flows out and, when hardened, turns into incense, which is gathered and made into lumps. It is transported on elephants to the Dashi [on the coast], who then load it upon their ships to exchange it for other commodities."

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 1, Block A: Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity (Herbert and Jane Dwight Working Group on Islamism... by Samuel Tadros (1 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 1, Block B: Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity (Herbert and Jane Dwight Working Group on Islamism... by Samuel Tadros (2 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 1, Block C: Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity (Herbert and Jane Dwight Working Group on Islamism... by Samuel Tadros (3 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 1, Block D: Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity (Herbert and Jane Dwight Working Group on Islamism... by Samuel Tadros (4 of 4)

Hour Two

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 2, Block A: The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia by Gregory D. Johnsen (1 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 2, Block B: The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia by Gregory D. Johnsen (2 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 2, Block C: The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia by Gregory D. Johnsen (3 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 2, Block D: The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia by Gregory D. Johnsen (4 of 4)

Hour Three

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 3, Block A: The Sunni Vanguard: Can Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia Survive the New Middle East? (The London Center Series... by Jed Babbin, David P. Goldman and Herbert I. London (1 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 3, Block B: The Sunni Vanguard: Can Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia Survive the New Middle East? (The London Center Series... by Jed Babbin, David P. Goldman and Herbert I. London (2 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 3, Block C: The Sunni Vanguard: Can Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia Survive the New Middle East? (The London Center Series... by Jed Babbin, David P. Goldman and Herbert I. London (3 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 3, Block D: The Sunni Vanguard: Can Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia Survive the New Middle East? (The London Center Series... by Jed Babbin, David P. Goldman and Herbert I. London (4 of 4)

Hour Four

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 4, Block A: Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Elliott Abrams (1 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 4, Block B: Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Elliott Abrams (2 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 4, Block C: Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Elliott Abrams (3 of 4)

Sunday 13 July  2014  / Hour 4, Block D: Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Elliott Abrams 4( of 4)

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