People, Places, Traces is a project documenting a millennium of interactions and exchanges between the British Isles and the Arab world through a series of public talks, essays and oral history interviews.

From the medieval period to the communities that have settled in Britain over the 20th and 21st centuries, this project traces this long history through profiles of remarkable people and their achievements, the places in present-day Britain that witnessed these exchanges, and through the traces of these encounters that can be found around us today, particularly in the West Midlands.

This project has been commissioned by the Arab British Centre as part of our Arab Britain programme which explores the history, achievements and experiences of Arabs in Britain. The project is being delivered by the Museum of Islamic Arts & Heritage (MIAH) Foundation, a charity promoting greater awareness and understanding about the arts, culture, heritage and history of the Islamic world.

History Talk 1: Early Medieval Exchanges Between England and the Arab World
Thursday 20 October | 6pm | Register here

Why did King Offa of Mercia produce a coin copied from a dinar minted for the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (r. 136–58/754–775)? What are the earliest links between England and the Arab world? What does Dudley Castle have to do with the First Crusade? Which local landmarks and historical figures from the West Midlands can help us trace this history?

Join MIAH for an online talk where historian Dr Neelam Hussain explores the early exchanges between medieval England and the Arab world between the 8th and 11th centuries.