Islamic North Africa: Kairouan mosque (ca. 800 AD) The Eastern Roman reconquest of North Africa in the 530s AD ended the Vandal kingdom there. But trade declined until the Islamic invasions of North [...]
St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Italy (about 1100 AD) The Seljuks destabilize Europe's neighbors In 1071 AD, the Byzantine Empire lost most of Anatolia (modern Turkey) to the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert. [...]
Republic of Genoa: Medieval drawing of the city of Genoa, Italy (1493) Genoa in the Early Middle Ages Around 900 AD, the Holy Roman Empire began to lose control of Italy, and Genoa was [...]
A Viking ship like the ones that sailed on the First Crusade Before the First Crusade Throughout the 1000s AD, Viking mercenary soldiers, some coming down the Volga river through Russia, and others sailing around [...]
Monogram of Hugh Capet (980s AD) Who was Hugh Capet? When the Carolingians died out in 987 AD, the lords of France met to choose a new king. They chose a man named Hugh [...]
Alexios I Comneni, the Byzantine emperor (1081 AD) The Battle of Manzikert The Battle of Manzikert in 1071 was the end of Basil's Armenian Dynasty. The Byzantines had lost Armenia to Alp Arslan [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Saladin Saladin started the Ayyubids When the First Crusade defeated the Fatimid Caliphs and captured Jerusalem in 1099 AD, people were very upset. People in Egypt and Syria gradually decided that the Fatimids were too weak to [...]
