The Seljuks defeat the Persians (1040 AD) The Seljuks were Turkic nomads from Turkmenistan. They were related to the Uighurs. They entered the Abbasid empire around 950 AD and gradually converted to Sunni Islam. By 1030 AD the Seljuks [...]
Mohammed praying at the Ka'aba(in an Ottoman book from 1388 AD) Mohammed was born in the Arab trading and pilgrimage city of Mecca, in the Arabian peninsula, between 570 and 580 AD. His parents were part of a family [...]
Shirij Madrasa, Fez, Morocco, about 1350 AD - built by the Marinids When did the Marinids get power? By 1217 AD, the Almohad dynasty in North Africa and Spain was collapsing. One [...]
Mamluks: A Mamluk inn for merchants in Cairo Mamluks were enslaved soldiers The Mamluks were originally enslaved bodyguards of the Abbasid caliphs of the Islamic Empire (the word "mamluk" just means "slave" in Arabic). Starting around 850 [...]
Late medieval Islamic history: Fatimid gate of Cairo Bad al-Futuh (1087 AD) The Abbasid Empire In 750 AD, it seemed like the Islamic Empire would last a thousand years. The Abbasid caliphs ruled a giant [...]
Islamic History: the Dome of the Rock mosque, Jerusalem Before the Islamic Empire In 600 AD, West Asia had been divided for centuries between two big empires, the Romans and the Sassanians. People [...]
The Hafsid Dynasty minted gold coins like this one The Hafsids replace the Almohads In the early 1200s AD, the Almohad empire fell apart into Marinid, Christian, and Hafsid kingdoms. The middle of North Africa [...]
Ghaznavids: A minaret in Ghazni (Afghanistan), from about 1000 AD Abbasid soldiers Beginning in the 850s AD, the Abbasid caliphs of the Islamic Empire were looking for soldiers they would be able to trust, who [...]
Fatimids built Bab Zuweila (Cairo, 1092 AD) Overthrowing the Abbasids in Egypt In 908 AD, a new family rose up in Egypt. They took control of Egypt from the Abbasids. This family [...]
Ibex hunt from Yemen, in early Arabia - 0-300 AD The first people there People probably first arrived in the Arabian peninsula about 60,000 BC,, crossing over the Sinai from Egypt or going all around [...]
