Capetians – French History – Middle Ages
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 [...]
2
08, 2017
27
07, 2017
Medieval Islamic science
Medieval Islamic science: Al Tusi's diagram of linear motion from circular motion Indian and African science In the Early Middle Ages, before the formation of the Islamic Empire, Buddhists ran the world's biggest [...]
26
07, 2017
What’s the difference between Shiite and Sunni?
In the lifetime of the Prophet Mohammed, and for some years afterwards, Islam was a united faith. But by the 650s AD, Islam split into two main sects. They fought bitterly with each other. These two [...]
26
07, 2017
Who are mawali? Medieval Islam
Shiite shrine at Karbala (from the 1800s AD): the tomb of Ali's son Hussein: Mawali history What are mawali? Mawali is the Arabic name for people all over the Islamic Empire who [...]
25
07, 2017
The Umayyads – Early Islamic History
Tomb of Ali, the first Imam and the fourth caliph, in Iraq (it was rebuilt about 1500 AD by the Safavids) Mohammed died in 632 AD. His second wife's father, a rich [...]
25
07, 2017
Islamic Spain and the Umayyads
Cordoba mosque, Spain By the late 600s AD, the Moors, people from North Africa who had converted to Islam, were regularly attacking Visigothic Spain. At first these raids were not very serious, and the Spanish [...]
25
07, 2017
Mohammed the Prophet – Early Islamic history
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 [...]
24
07, 2017
Islamic History – the Islamic Empire
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 [...]
23
07, 2017
The Abbasids – Medieval Islamic history
Minaret at Samarra, 847 AD The first Abbasid caliphs In 750 AD, the Abbasid caliphs murdered all of the surviving Umayyad men but one. Who were the Umayyads? All our medieval Islam articles [...]
23
07, 2017
Umayyad architecture – Islam
Dome of the Rock mosque, Jerusalem People didn't build a lot of new buildings during the Umayyad period. They were busy getting organized after the Islamic conquests, and the Umayyad dynasty didn't [...]
