Who are the Kurds?
The Kurds in the Bronze Age As far back as the Bronze Age, the Kurds seem to have lived in the mountain areas between West Asia (today's Turkey, Syria, and Iraq) and [...]
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10, 2019
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08, 2017
Jews in the Islamic Empire
Jews in the Islamic Empire: The synagogue where Maimonides worked in Cairo, Egypt (1100s AD) Did Jewish people help the Arab conquest? The Arabs first began to attack the Roman Empire in the 630s AD. [...]
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08, 2017
Fourth Crusade – the sack of Constantinople
The Pope calls for another crusade In 1200 AD, Pope Innocent began to ask the rulers of Europe to participate in a fourth crusade, again attempting to take Jerusalem away from the Ayyubids who ruled there. Saladin had died in [...]
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08, 2017
Third Crusade – Medieval history
Saladin (Salah al-din) When the Mamluk general Imad-ed-din Zangi died, he was succeeded by his son Nureddin, who added Damascus to the land his father had gathered together. And after Nureddin died in 1174 AD, [...]
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08, 2017
Eleanor of Aquitaine – Queen of France and England
Eleanor of Aquitaine (Cloisters Museum, New York City) Eleanor of Aquitaine was fifteen years old in 1137 AD, and not yet married, when her father, the Duke of Aquitaine, died suddenly. [...]
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08, 2017
Comneni Dynasty – Byzantine history
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 [...]
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08, 2017
Saladin Tax – Medieval Europe
Sherwood Forest, where Robin Hood lived In the Early Middle Ages, most people did not pay any money taxes to the king. Instead, they gave chickens, honey, or work days to their own [...]
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07, 2017
Medieval castles – Middle Ages
Outer walls of Caen castle, Normandy, France (about 1050 AD) From Roman castra to medieval castles Rich Romans didn't live in castles. They lived in villas. But Roman soldiers lived in military forts [...]
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07, 2017
Maimonides – a Jewish doctor in medieval Cairo
Saladin's castle in Cairo, where Maimonides worked Maimonides and health care In the 1100s AD, when Maimonides wrote his book about medicine, doctors didn't have very many medicines or medical treatments that worked. The Guide [...]
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07, 2017
Medieval Islamic medicine
Islamic medicine: From an Ottoman manuscript, two doctors telling the pharmacist how to make different medicines Writing medical encyclopedias Doctors made big scientific advances in medicine during the Islamic empire. The [...]
