Saladinus, by Cristofano dell'Altissimo, ante 1568
19th-century depiction of a victorious Saladin, by Gustave Doré
Saladin ended his siege of the Ismaili ("Assassins") fortress of Masyaf, which was commanded by Rashid ad-Din Sinan, under uncertain circumstances in August 1176.…
Saladin assured the protection of caravan routes that allowed travel to distant lands.Isle of Graia Gulf of Akabah Arabia Petraea, depicting the Pharaoh's Island in the northern Gulf of Aqaba off the shore of Egypt's eastern Sinai Peninsula.
Saladin's tomb, near the northwest corner of the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria.
Saladin's sarcophagus within the tomb building.
salaheddin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi[a] (c. 1137 – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,[b] was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, Ayyubid territorial control spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, the Maghreb, and Nubia.
Alongside his uncle Shirkuh, a military general of the Zengid dynasty, Saladin was sent to Egypt under the Fatimid Caliphate in 1164, on the orders of Nur ad-Din. With their original purpose being to help restore Shawar as the vizier to the teenage Fatimid caliph al-Adid, a power struggle ensued between Shirkuh and Shawar after the latter was reinstated. Saladin, meanwhile, climbed the ranks of the Fatimid government by virtue of his military successes against Crusader assaults as well as his personal closeness to al-Adid. After Shawar was assassinated and Shirkuh died in 1169, al-Adid appointed Saladin as vizier. During his tenure, Saladin, a Sunni Muslim, began to undermine the Fatimid establishment; following al-Adid's death in 1171, he abolished the Cairo-based Shia Islamic Fatimid Caliphate and realigned his power with the Baghdad-based Sunni Islamic Abbasid Caliphate.
In the following years, he led forays against the Crusaders in Palestine, commissioned the successful conquest of Yemen, and staved off pro-Fatimid rebellions in Egypt. Not long after Nur ad-Din's death in 1174, Saladin launched his conquest of Syria, peacefully entering Damascus at the request of its governor. By mid-1175, Saladin had conquered Hama and Homs, inviting the animosity of other Zengid lords, who were the official rulers of Syria's various regions; he subsequently defeated the Zengids at the Battle of the Horns of Hama in 1175, and was thereafter proclaimed the "Sultan of Egypt and Syria" by the Abbasid caliph al-Mustadi. Saladin launched further conquests in northern Syria and Jazira, escaping two attempts on his life by the Order of Assassins, before returning to Egypt in 1177 to address local issues there. By 1182, Saladin had completed the conquest of Muslim Syria after capturing Aleppo, but ultimately failed to take over the Zengid stronghold of Mosul.
Under Saladin's command, the Ayyubid army defeated the Crusaders at the decisive Battle of Hattin in 1187, capturing Jerusalem and re-establishing Muslim military dominance in the Levant. Although the Crusaders' Kingdom of Jerusalem continued to exist until the late 13th century, the defeat in 1187 marked a turning point in the Christian military effort against Muslim powers in the region. Saladin died in Damascus in 1193, having given away much of his personal wealth to his subjects; he is buried in a mausoleum adjacent to the Umayyad Mosque. Alongside his significance to Muslim culture, Saladin is revered prominently in Kurdish culture, Turkic culture, and Arab culture. He has frequently been described as the most famous Kurdish figure in history.
Miniature of Peter the Hermit leading the People's Crusade (Egerton 1500, Avignon, 14th-century)
A map of the routes of the major leaders of the First Crusade
The first known mention of the Frankish conquest of Jerusalem, in an Armenian colophon written in 1099
Crusader graffiti in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
Map of the Iberian Christian and Muslim lands in 1060
The leaders of the Crusade on Greek ships crossing the Bosporus, a romantic painting from the 19th century
The crusaders deposed by the Hungarians. Arrival of the Crusaders in Belgrade. Burning of a church by the Bulgarians (1096). Miniature taken from Passages d'outremer by Sébastien Mamerot.
Baldwin of Boulogne entering Edessa in 1098 (history painting by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury, 1840)
Battle of Dorylaeum (Gustave Doré).
Detail of a medieval miniature of the Siege of Antioch from Sébastien Mamerot's Les Passages d'Outremer
Bohemond of Taranto Alone Mounts the Rampart of Antioch, by Gustave Doré (1871)
A 14th-century depiction of the crusaders' capture of Antioch from a manuscript in the care of the National Library of the Netherlands
An illustration of Kerbogha besieging Antioch, from a 14th-century manuscript in the care of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
A 13th-century depiction of battle outside Antioch from William of Tyre's Histoire d'Outremer, in the care of the British Museum
The massacre of Antioch, in an engraving by Gustave Doré
Heraldic banner of arms of Poitiers-Antioch (derived from the coat of arms)
Capture of the fortress of Maarat in the province of Antioch in 1098 by Henri Decaisne
The Siege of Jerusalem as depicted in a medieval manuscript
Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, 15th July 1099, Émile Signol, oil on canvas (1847)
Bataille d'Ascalon, 12 août 1099 (oil on canvas by Jean-Victor Schnetz, 1847), Salles des Croisades, Palace of Versailles
Godefroy de Bouillon dépose dans l'église du Saint-Sépulcre les trophées d'Ascalon, août 1099, oil on canvas by François-Marius Granet (1839) in the Salles des Croisades, Palace of Versailles
1096
The First Crusade
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic rule. While Jerusalem had been under Muslim rule for hundreds of years, by the 11th century the Seljuk takeover of the region threatened local Christian populations, pilgrimages from the West, and the Byzantine Empire itself. The earliest initiative for the First Crusade began in 1095 when Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military support from the Council of Piacenza in the empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. This was followed later in the year by the Council of Clermont, during which Pope Urban II supported the Byzantine request for military assistance and also urged faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
This call was met with an enthusiastic popular response across all social classes in western Europe. Mobs of predominantly poor Christians numbering in the thousands, led by Peter the Hermit, a French priest, were the first to respond. What has become known as the People's Crusade passed through Germany and indulged in wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities, including the Rhineland massacres. On leaving Byzantine-controlled territory in Anatolia, they were annihilated in a Turkish ambush led by the Seljuk Kilij Arslan at the Battle of Civetot in October 1096.
In what has become known as the Princes' Crusade, members of the high nobility and their followers embarked in late-summer 1096 and arrived at Constantinople between November and April the following year. This was a large feudal host led by notable Western European princes: southern French forces under Raymond IV of Toulouse and Adhemar of Le Puy; men from Upper and Lower Lorraine led by Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin of Boulogne; Italo-Norman forces led by Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred; as well as various contingents consisting of northern French and Flemish forces under Robert Curthose (Robert II of Normandy), Stephen of Blois, Hugh of Vermandois, and Robert II of Flanders. In total and including non-combatants, the forces are estimated to have numbered as many as 100,000.
The crusader forces gradually arrived in Anatolia. With Kilij Arslan absent, a Frankish attack and Byzantine naval assault during the Siege of Nicaea in June 1097 resulted in an initial crusader victory. In July, the crusaders won the Battle of Dorylaeum, fighting Turkish lightly-armoured mounted archers. After a difficult march through Anatolia, the crusaders began the Siege of Antioch, capturing the city in June 1098. Jerusalem was reached in June 1099 and the Siege of Jerusalem resulted in the city being taken by assault from 7 June to 15 July 1099, during which its defenders were ruthlessly massacred. A Fatimid counterattack was repulsed later that year at the Battle of Ascalon, ending the First Crusade. Afterwards the majority of the crusaders returned home.
Four Crusader states were established in the Holy Land: the Kingdom of Jerusalem under Godfrey of Bouillon but not using the title king, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Tripoli. The Crusader presence remained in the region in some form until the loss of the last major Crusader stronghold in the Siege of Acre in 1291. After this loss of all Crusader territory in the Levant, there were no further substantive attempts to recover the Holy Land.
1118
Zaragoza
On 18 December 1118, Alfonso I of Aragon conquered the city from the Almoravids , and made it the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon. The aforementioned monarch created a jurisdictional dominion in the city, which was gifted to Gaston of Béarn. The city remained a lordship up until the early 13th century.
The city did not suffer any decline during the last centuries of the Roman empire and was captured peacefully by the Goths in the fifth century AD.
In the eighth century, following the Umayyad conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Zaragoza became the capital of the Upper March of al-Andalus.
In 1018, amid the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Zaragoza became an independent Taifa of Zaragoza, initially controlled by the Tujibid family, then ruled by the Banu Hud from 1039. The taifa greatly prospered in a cultural and political sense in the late 11th century, and being later governed by Ahmad al-Muqtadir, Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud and Al-Musta'in II. It fell to the Almoravids in 1110.On 18 December 1118, Alfonso I of Aragon conquered the city from the Almoravids,[14] and made it the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon. The aforementioned monarch created a jurisdictional dominion in the city, which was gifted to Gaston of Béarn. The city remained a lordship up until the early 13th century.
The alcazar of La Aljafería, built by Ahmad I , the exterior facade of the Aljafería was rebuilt in the 20th century.
The Aljafería Palace (Spanish: Palacio de la Aljafería; Arabic: قصر الجعفرية, tr. Qaṣr al-Jaʿfariyah) is a fortified medieval palace built during the second half of the 11th century in the Taifa of Zaragoza in Al-Andalus, present day Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. It was the residence of the Banu Hud dynasty during the era of Abu Jaffar Al-Muqtadir. The palace reflects the splendor attained by the Taifa of Zaragoza at its height. It currently houses the Cortes (regional parliament) of the autonomous community of Aragon
Detail of the frieze of the Golden Hall of the Aljafería, that conserves remains of polychrome. 11th century.
Remains of polychrome on a yeseria panel with geometric decoration
The Moorish-Taifa north side halls
Interior of the Oratory. Front of mihrab
Moorish arabesques in the arches of the south portico
Effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the church of Fontevraud Abbey
Effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the church of Fontevraud Abbey
Eleanor's grandfather, William IX of Aquitaine, gave her this rock crystal vase, which she gave to Louis as a wedding gift. He later donated it to the Abbey of Saint-Denis. This is the only surviving artifact known to have belonged to Eleanor; it is now on display in the Louvre, Paris.
Second Crusade council: Conrad III of Germany, Eleanor's husband Louis VII of France, and Baldwin III of Jerusalem
Henry II of England, drawn by Matthew Paris
The Palace of Poitiers, the seat of the counts of Poitou and dukes of Aquitaine in the 10th through to the 12th centuries, where Eleanor's highly literate and artistic court inspired tales of Courts of Love.
Donor portrait in a 12th-century psalter in the Royal Library of the Netherlands, thought to depict an older Eleanor.
Tomb effigies of Eleanor and Henry II at Fontevraud Abbey in central France
Issue of Eleanor & Henry
1122
Aliénor d'Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine (c. 1122 – 1 April 1204; French: Aliénor d'Aquitaine, pronounced [aljenɔʁ dakitɛn]) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII,[1] Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. As the heiress of the House of Poitiers, which controlled much of southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was a patron of poets such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She was a key leading figure in the unsuccessful Second Crusade.
Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, and Aénor de Châtellerault. She became duchess upon her father's death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of France. A few weeks later, Eleanor's father-in-law died and her husband succeeded him as King Louis VII. Eleanor and Louis VII had two daughters, Marie and Alix. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage,[2] but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III.[3] Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as fifteen years of marriage had not produced a son.[4] The marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor's lands were restored to her.
As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152. Henry and Eleanor became king and queen of England in 1154. They had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry the Young King, against him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when her husband died and their third son, Richard I, ascended the throne. As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade.[5] She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John.
1137
conrad 3
Conrad III (German: Konrad; Italian: Corrado; 1093 or 1094 – 15 February 1152) of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was from 1116 to 1120 Duke of Franconia, from 1127 to 1135 anti-king of his predecessor Lothair III and from 1138 until his death in 1152 king in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the son of Duke Frederick I of Swabia and Agnes,[1] a daughter of the Salian Emperor Henry IV.[2][3]
His reign saw the start of the conflicts between the Guelphs and Gibbelins. He was involved in the failed Second Crusade with Louis VII, where he would fight and lose at Doryleum and would later fall ill and return to Constantinople. After recuperating, he went to Jerusalem but would experience a string of failed sieges. Later returning from the Crusade, he was entangled in some conflicts with Welf VI's claim to the Duchy of Bavaria. On his deathbed, he designated his nephew Frederick Barbarossa as his successor instead of his son, Frederick.
Miniature of Conrad III of Germany from Chronica Regia Coloniensis (Cologne Kings' Chronicle; Cologne; ca. 1240). Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 467, fol. 64v
Conrad III and his armies in Hungary. Image from the Chronicon Pictum
Tomb of King Conrad III in the Bamberg Cathedral
The Almoravid minbar, commissioned by Ali ibn Yusuf in 1137 and built in Cordoba.
Internal view of the Almoravid Qubba, inscribed with Ali's name.
A manuscript of Kitāb as-Siām from Muwatta al-Imam Malik as read by Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi, written for Ali ibn Yūsuf.
Tomb of Afonso Henriques in the Santa Cruz Monastery in Coimbra.
King Afonso I of Portugal.
ISLAMIC, al-Maghreb (North Africa). Almoravids (al-Murabitun). 'Ali ibn Yusuf. AH 500-537 / AD 1107-1142. AV Dinar (26mm, 3.97 g, 8h). Isbiliya (Seville) mint. Dated AH 520 (AD 1126/7). Hazard 219; Lavoix 579; Album 466.1; ICV 690. EF, lustrous.
1139
The Battle of Ourique
(Arabic: معركة أوريكه) took place on 25 July 1139, in which the forces of Portuguese count Afonso Henriques (of the House of Burgundy) defeated those led by the Almoravid governor of Córdoba, Muhammad Az-Zubayr Ibn Umar, identified as "King Ismar" in Christian chronicles.
1140
The Battle of Valdevez
(Portuguese: Torneio de Arcos de Valdevez) took place at Arcos de Valdevez on the banks of the river Vez between the Kingdom of León and the Kingdom of Portugal in the summer of 1140 or 1141. It is one of only two pitched battles that Alfonso VII of León is known to have fought, and the only of the two not coincident with a siege. His opponent at Valdevez was his cousin Afonso I of Portugal. An armistice signed after the battle eventually became the Treaty of Zamora (1143), and ended Portugal's first war of independence. The area of the battle became known as the Veiga or Campo da Matança, the "field of killing".
Panel of glazed tiles by Jorge Colaço, representing theTournament of Arcos de Valdevez, between the kingdoms of Portugal and Leão.
One of the knights in the monument in Arcos de Valdevez
Establishment of the Portuguese Nationality (Treaty of Zamora). Tiles on the Jardim 1.º de Dezembro, Portimão, Portugal.
1143
The Treaty of Zamora
recognized Portuguese independence from the Kingdom of León. Based on the terms of the accord, King Alfonso VII of León recognized the Kingdom of Portugal in the presence of his cousin King Afonso I of Portugal, witnessed by the papal representative, Cardinal Guido de Vico, at the Cathedral of Zamora. Both kings promised durable peace between their kingdoms. By this treaty Afonso I of Portugal also recognized the suzerainty of the Pope.
St Bernard in stained glass, from the Upper Rhine, c. 1450
Arrival of the Second Crusade before Constantinople, portrayed in Jean Fouquet's painting from around 1455–1460, Arrivée des croisés à Constantinople
Illustration from a copy of the Passages d'outremer by Jean Colombe and Sébastien Mamerot depicting the Battle of Inab
Raymond of Poitiers welcoming Louis VII in Antioch
Combat in the 2nd Crusade, French manuscript, 14th century
Battle of Mount Cadmus , From a copy of the Passages d'outremer (c. 1490)
Siege of Damascus, miniature by Jean Colombe from Sébastien Mamerot's book "Passages d'outremer" (1474)
Crusaders besieging Damascus
Bernard of Clairvaux, as shown in the church of Heiligenkreuz Abbey near Baden bei Wien, Lower Austria. Portrait (1700) with the true effigy of the Saint by Georg Andreas Wasshuber (1650-1732), (painted after a statue in Clairvaux with the true effigy of the saint)
1147
The Second Crusade
The Second Crusade (1145–1149) was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144 to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusade (1096–1099) by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1098. While it was the first Crusader state to be founded, it was also the first to fall.
The Second Crusade was announced by Pope Eugene III, and was the first of the crusades to be led by European kings, namely Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, with help from a number of other European nobles. The armies of the two kings marched separately across Europe. After crossing Byzantine territory into Anatolia, both armies were separately defeated by the Seljuk Turks. The main Western Christian source, Odo of Deuil, and Syriac Christian sources claim that the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos secretly hindered the crusaders' progress, particularly in Anatolia, where he is alleged to have deliberately ordered Turks to attack them. However, this alleged sabotage of the Crusade by the Byzantines was likely fabricated by Odo, who saw the Empire as an obstacle, and moreover Emperor Manuel had no political reason to do so.[2] Louis and Conrad and the remnants of their armies reached Jerusalem and participated in 1148 in an ill-advised attack on Damascus, which ended in their retreat. In the end, the crusade in the east was a failure for the crusaders and a victory for the Muslims. It would ultimately have a key influence on the fall of Jerusalem and give rise to the Third Crusade at the end of the 12th century.
While the Second Crusade failed to achieve its goals in the Holy Land, crusaders did see victories elsewhere. The most significant of these came to a combined force of 13,000 Flemish, Frisian, Norman, English, Scottish, and German crusaders in 1147. Travelling from England, by ship, to the Holy Land, the army stopped and helped the smaller (7,000) Portuguese army in the capture of Lisbon, expelling its Moorish occupants.
1147
The siege of Lisbon
, from 1 July to 25 October 1147, was the military action against the Muslim-ruled Taifa of Badajoz that brought the city of Lisbon under the definitive control of the new Christian power, the Kingdom of Portugal.
The siege of Lisbon was one of the few Christian victories of the Second Crusade—it was "the only success of the universal operation undertaken by the pilgrim army", i.e., the Second Crusade, according to the near contemporary historian Helmold,[2] although others have questioned whether it was really part of that crusade.[3] It is seen as a pivotal battle of the wider Reconquista.
The fall of Edessa in 1144 led to a call for a new crusade by Pope Eugene III in 1145 and 1146. In the spring of 1147, the Pope authorized the crusade in the Iberian Peninsula. He also authorized Alfonso VII of León and Castile to equate his campaigns against the Moors with the rest of the Second Crusade. In May 1147, a contingent of crusaders left from Dartmouth, Devon in the Kingdom of England. They had intended to sail directly to the Holy Land, but weather forced the ships to stop on the Portuguese coast at the northern city of Porto on 16 June 1147. There they were convinced to meet with Afonso I of Portugal, who had in 1139 declared himself king of the new Kingdom of Portugal.
The crusaders agreed to help the King attack Lisbon, with a solemn agreement that offered to the crusaders the pillage of the city's goods and the ransom money for expected prisoners. The siege began on 1 July. The city of Lisbon at the time of arrival consisted of sixty thousand families, including the refugees who had fled Christian onslaught from neighbouring cities of Santarém and others. Also reported by the De expugnatione Lyxbonensi is that the citadel was holding 154,000 men, not counting women and children; as the medieval account put it, after 17 weeks of siege "the inhabitants were despoiled and the city cleansed".
Siege of Lisbon by Roque Gameiro
The Siege of Lisbon by D. Afonso Henriques by Joaquim Rodrigues Braga (1840): a Romantic view
Afonso I of Portugal , portrait in Compendium of Chronicles of Kings (c. 1312–25)
Tomb of Afonso Henriques in the Santa Cruz Monastery in Coimbra.
The fortress complex of Muslim Tortosa, called La Zuda, was besieged in 1148 by a crusader army.
Map of al-Maghrib al-Aqsa and al-Maghrib al-Awsat (south-up) in MS arabe 2221, the oldest known surviving manuscript copy of Idrisi's Tabula Rogeriana.
Armenia is shown in the bottom center, Azerbaijan in the lower left corner, and West Central Iran in upper left and a small portion of the Caspian Sea at the bottom left, with the Zagros Mountains at the bottom. Sixth section of the fourth clime from the oldest extant manuscript of al-Idrisi's Nuzhat al-mushtaq, copied c.1300.
Showing upper Mesopotamia. Sixth section of the fourth clime from the oldest extant manuscript of al-Idrisi's Nuzhat al-mushtaq, copied c.1300.
Wide version of the same map
Al-Idrisi's world map from 'Ali ibn Hasan al-Hufi al-Qasimi's 1456 copy. This is an example of the circular world maps inserted into the manuscript in later editions.
Roger II riding to war, from the Liber ad honorem Augusti of Petrus de Ebulo, 1196.
Royal mantle of Roger II, bearing an inscription in Arabic with the Hijrah date of 528 (1133–34). Imperial Treasury, Vienna, in the Hofburg Palace.
Al-Idrisi's description of Finland
Statue of Al-Idrisi under the bastion of the Mallorquines, Ceuta
Reproduction of al-Idrisi's planisphere (as a globe) by the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization (UAE).
1154
idrissi
Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi /ælɪˈdriːsiː/ (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي القرطبي الحسني السبتي; Latin: Dreses; 1100 – 1165), was a Muslim Arab geographer, Egyptologist, and cartographer who served in the court of King Roger II at Palermo, Sicily. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta then belonging to the Almoravids. He created the Tabula Rogeriana, one of the most advanced medieval world maps.
Because of conflict and instability in Al-Andalus al-Idrisi joined contemporaries such as Abu al-Salt in Sicily, where the Normans had overthrown Arabs formerly loyal to the Fatimids.
Al-Idrisi incorporated the knowledge of Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Far East gathered by Islamic merchants and explorers and recorded on Islamic maps with the information brought by the Norman voyagers to create the most accurate map of the world in pre-modern times,[5] which served as a concrete illustration of his Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq, (Latin: Opus Geographicum), which may be translated A Diversion for the Man Longing to Travel to Far-Off Places.[6]
The Tabula Rogeriana was drawn by al-Idrisi in 1154 for the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, after a stay of eighteen years at his court, where he worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map. The map, with legends written in Arabic, while showing the Eurasian continent in its entirety, only shows the northern part of the African continent and lacks details of the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia.
For Roger it was inscribed on a massive disc of solid silver, two metres in diameter.
On the geographical work of al-Idrisi, S.P. Scott wrote in 1904:
The compilation of al-Idrisi marks an era in the history of science. Not only is its historical information most interesting and valuable, but its descriptions of many parts of the earth are still authoritative. For three centuries geographers copied his maps without alteration. The relative position of the lakes which form the Nile, as delineated in his work, does not differ greatly from that established by Baker and Stanley more than seven hundred years afterwards, and their number is the same. The mechanical genius of the author was not inferior to his erudition. The celestial and terrestrial planisphere of silver which he constructed for his royal patron was nearly six feet in diameter, and weighed four hundred and fifty pounds; upon the one side the zodiac and the constellations, upon the other-divided for convenience into segments-the bodies of land and water, with the respective situations of the various countries, were engraved.[5]
Al-Idrisi's work influenced a number of Islamic scholars including Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, Hafiz-i Abru, and Ibn Khaldun but his work was unknown in Western Europe and had little influence on the development of Renaissance cartography.[7]
1176
legnano
The Battle of Legnano was a battle between the imperial army of Frederick Barbarossa and the troops of the Lombard League on May 29, 1176, near the town of Legnano in present-day Lombardy, in Italy.[7][8] Although the presence of the enemy nearby was already known to both sides, they suddenly met without having time to plan any strategy.[9][10]
The battle was crucial in the long war waged by the Holy Roman Empire in an attempt to assert its power over the municipalities of Northern Italy,[9] which decided to set aside their mutual rivalries and join in a military alliance symbolically led by Pope Alexander III, the Lombard League.[11]
The battle ended the fifth and last descent into Italy of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa,[7] who after the defeat tried to resolve the Italian question by adopting a diplomatic approach. This resulted a few years later in the Peace of Constance (June 25, 1183), with which the Emperor recognized the Lombard League and made administrative, political, and judicial concessions to the municipalities, officially ending his attempt to dominate Northern Italy.[12][13]
The battle is alluded to in the Canto degli Italiani by Goffredo Mameli and Michele Novaro, which reads: «[...] From the Alps to Sicily, Legnano is everywhere [...]» in memory of the victory of Italian populations over foreign ones.[14] Thanks to this battle, Legnano is the only city, besides Rome, to be mentioned in the Italian national anthem.[14] In Legnano, to commemorate the battle, the Palio di Legnano takes place annually from 1935, on the last Sunday of May.[15] In the institutional sphere, the date of May 29 was chosen as the regional holiday of Lombardy.
The defense of the Carroccio during the battle of Legnano (by Amos Cassioli, 1860)
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor as crusader. Dedicatory image from a manuscript of Robert the Monk's Historia Hierosolymitana (Vat. Lat. 2001, dated ca. 1188).
The Milanese in the presence of Frederick Barbarossa ask for clemency after the surrender of the city (1162)
Pontida: plaque commemorating the constitutive oath of the Lombard League (1167).
Frederick Barbarossa kneeling before Henry the Lion at Chiavenna
The soldiers of the Lombard League who seek in vain the dead body of Frederick Barbarossa on a 1913 illustration
Konstanz: commemorative plaque of the peace treaty
The Battle of Montgisard, 1177, by Charles Philippe Larivière
Late 15th-century depiction of the battle from a copy of the Passages d'outremer
1177
The Battle of Montgisard
was fought between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Ayyubids on 25 November 1177 at Montgisard, in the Levant between Ramla and Yibna.[4] The 16-year-old Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, seriously afflicted by leprosy, led an outnumbered Christian force against Saladin's troops in what became one of the most notable engagements of the Crusades. The Muslim army was quickly routed and pursued for twelve miles.[5] Saladin fled back to Cairo, reaching the city on 8 December, with only a tenth of his army.[2] Muslim historians considered Saladin's defeat to be so severe that it was only redeemed by his victory ten years later at the Battle of Hattin in 1187, although Saladin defeated Baldwin in the Battle of Marj Ayyun in 1179, only to be defeated by Baldwin again at the Battle of Belvoir Castle in 1182.[2]
1179
The siege of Jacob's Ford
was a victory of the Muslim sultan Saladin over the Christian King of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV. It occurred in August 1179, when Saladin conquered and destroyed Chastelet, a new border castle built by the Knights Templar at Jacob's Ford on the upper Jordan River, a historic passage point between the Golan Heights and northern Galilee. Jacob's Ford is also known by the Latin name of Vadum Iacob and in modern Hebrew as Ateret. Many scholars believe that Saladin's reconquest of the Holy Land and Jerusalem in 1187 was heralded by this earlier victory.
Ruins of the Crusader fortress at Jacob's Ford.
Naval battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185. These are 2 left panels of 8 panels total. 《Emperor Antoku Engi Illustrated》8 width panels. "Emperor Antoku painting on gold paper" designated cultural property.
The Battle of Akama Strait at Dan no Ura in Choshu in 1185.
1185
dan-no-ura
The Battle of Dan-no-ura (壇ノ浦の戦い, Dan-no-ura no tatakai) was a major sea battle of the Genpei War, occurring at Dan-no-ura, in the Shimonoseki Strait off the southern tip of Honshū. On April 25, 1185 (or March 24, 1185 by the official page of Shimonoseki City), the fleet of the Minamoto clan (Genji), led by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, defeated the fleet of the Taira clan (Heike). The morning rip tide was an advantage to the Taira in the morning but turned to their disadvantage in the afternoon. The young Emperor Antoku was one of those who died among the Taira nobles.[1]
1187
Battle of Cresson
Saladin, had been consolidating power during the reign of Baldwin IV. His successful campaigns in Mosul, Aleppo, and Egypt resulted in his sultanate being recognized by the Abbasid caliphate.[13][14] Saladin returned to Damascus following Mosul’s fall, having now placed the empire of Nur ad-Din under his uneasy control.[15] In 1185, Saladin had signed a truce treaty with the Franks under then-regent Raymond; however, before the treaty expiration, Reynald captured a caravan of Muslims traveling from Cairo to Damascus that winter [16] When Saladin demanded reparation, King Guy tried to make Reynald to, but he refused the King's request claiming he was absolute sovereign of his lands and he had no truce with Saladin.[17] In response, Saladin launched an offensive against Reynald’s castle at Kerak in 1187, leaving his son al Melik al-Afdal as commander of a contingency at Re’sulma.
In response to the encroaching threat, Guy assembled the High Court in Jerusalem. A delegation of Gerard of Ridefort, master of the Knights Templar; Roger de Moulins, master of the Knights Hospitaller; Balian of Ibelin, Josicus, Archbishop of Tyre; and Reginal Grenier, lord of Sidon, were selected to journey to Tiberias to make peace with Raymond.[18] Meanwhile, al-Afdal gathered a raiding party to pillage the land surrounding Acre, while Saladin besieged Kerak. al-Afdal dispatched Muzzafar ad-Din Gökböri, Emir of Edessa, to lead this expedition, accompanied by two ranking emirs, Qaymaz al-Najami and Dildirim al-Yarugi.[19] Knowing that his troops were poised to enter Raymond’s territory, Saladin agreed that the raiding party would only pass-through Galilee en route to Acre, leaving Raymond’s lands untouched.
Karak is known for its crusader castle, one of the largest castles in the region
The Kerak Castle
The Battle of La Fontaine du Cresson miniature by Jean Colombe circa 1474
![Opening page of the Libellus in the British Library's Cotton MS Cleopatra B. I.The Libellus de expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum (Little Book about the Conquest of the Holy Land by Saladin), also called the Chronicon terrae sanctae (Chronicle of the Holy Land), is a short anonymous Latin account of the conquests of Saladin (Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn) in the Holy Land between 1186 and 1191.[1][2] The core of the text was written shortly after the events it describes and then supplemented by the addition of an account of the Third Crusade early in the thirteenth century. This probably took place at Coggeshall Abbey in England. Neither the original author nor the continuator/compiler is known by name.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/ff06607a-f0aa-488c-b0b8-f85c8af97220/f5c2a8d3-e287-4c5d-ab74-1ec2f90c80e4_rw_1200.PNG?h=16bae8861afdd9ce18e8f3e4613a12d8)
Opening page of the Libellus in the British Library's Cotton MS Cleopatra B. I.The Libellus de expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum (Little Book about the Conquest of the Holy Land by Saladin), also called the Chronicon terrae sanctae (Chronicle of the Holy Land), is a short anonymous Latin account of the conquests of Saladin (Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn) in the Holy Land between 1186 and 1191.[1][2] The core of the text was written shortly after the events it describes and then supplemented by the addition of an account of the Third Crusade early in the thirteenth century. This probably took place at Coggeshall Abbey in England. Neither the original author nor the continuator/compiler is known by name.
The Battle of Hattin, from a 13th-century manuscript of the Chronica Majora.
Battle of Hattin (Gustave Doré)
15th century miniature depicting a charge of the Christian defenders against Saladin's army. Part of the manuscript Les Passages d’Outremer, by Sébastien Mamerot.
Modern interpretation of Saladin accepting the surrender of Guy of Lusignan
1187
Battle of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of that name.
The Muslim armies under Saladin captured or killed the vast majority of the Crusader forces, removing their capability to wage war.[16] As a direct result of the battle, Muslims once again became the eminent military power in the Holy Land, re-capturing Jerusalem and most of the other Crusader-held cities and castles.[16] These Christian defeats prompted the Third Crusade, which began two years after the Battle of Hattin.
1187
The siege of Jerusalem
, when Balian of Ibelin surrendered the city to Saladin. Earlier that summer, Saladin had defeated the kingdom's army and conquered several cities. Balian was charged with organizing a defense. The city was full of refugees but had few soldiers. Despite this fact the defenders managed to repulse several attempts by Saladin's army to take the city by storm. Balian bargained with Saladin to buy safe passage for many, and the city was peacefully surrendered with limited bloodshed. Though Jerusalem fell, it was not the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as the capital shifted first to Tyre and later to Acre after the Third Crusade. Latin Christians responded in 1189 by launching the Third Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart, Philip Augustus, and Frederick Barbarossa separately.[1] In Jerusalem, Saladin restored Muslim holy sites and generally showed tolerance towards Christians; he allowed Orthodox and Eastern Christian pilgrims to visit the holy sites freely -- though Frankish (i.e. Catholic) pilgrims were required to pay a fee for entry. The control of Christian affairs in the city was handed over to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville - François Guizot (1787-1874), The History of France from the Earliest Times to the Year 1789, London : S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1883, p. 435
The Alvor massacre took place in June 1189 during the Third Crusade, when a fleet of crusaders from the Holy Roman Empire, Denmark and the County of Flanders stormed the castle of Alvor in the Algarve, then part of the Almohad Caliphate, and massacred 5,600 people.View inside the walls of the citadel of Alvor today
A page from the Narratio de itinere navali, the most valuable source on the siege of 1189
Part of the walls of Silves today, showing an albarrana tower
This 18th-century map, most likely a reprint from an early-19th century French atlas, shows the Kingdom of the Algarve. In 1249, King Alfonso III of Portugal completed the reconquest of southern Portugal from the Moors. Thereafter, Alfonso took to calling himself the King of Portugal and the Algarves. The Algarve, which corresponds to the present-day region of Faro, retained a semi-autonomous existence under Portuguese rule until 1910, when it was merged into the newly proclaimed Republic of Portugal. The Algarve was famous as the location from which, in Sagres, the 15th-century prince, Henry the Navigator, launched his voyages of discovery into the Atlantic. The word Algarve comes from the Arabic el-Garbh, meaning “the West.” Algarve (Portugal)
State of the Iberian peninsula in 1195, showing recent territorial changes and military activities
The Near East, c. 1190, at the inception of the Third Crusade
l'armée de Saladin - Guillaume de Tyr, Histoire d'Outremer. Manuscrit enluminé sur parchemin (300 feuillets, 40 x 30 cm). Paris, 1337. BnF, Manuscrits (Fr 22495 fol. 229v)
Richard the Lionheart on his way to Jerusalem, James William Glass (1850)
Philip II depicted arriving in Palestine, 1332–1350
Siege of Acre Biblotheque Municipale de Lyon
A 19th-century depiction of the Acre's surrender to Philip in 1191
Richard the Lionheart and Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf, by Gustave Doré
Massacre of the Saracen prisoners, ordered by King Richard the Lionheart (Alphonse de Neuville)
1189
The Third Crusade
Was an attempt led by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. For this reason, the Third Crusade is also known as the Kings' Crusade.[13]
It was partially successful, recapturing the important cities of Acre and Jaffa, and reversing most of Saladin's conquests, but it failed to recapture Jerusalem, which was the major aim of the Crusade and its religious focus.
After the failure of the Second Crusade of 1147–1149, the Zengid dynasty controlled a unified Syria and engaged in a conflict with the Fatimid rulers of Egypt. Saladin ultimately brought both the Egyptian and Syrian forces under his own control, and employed them to reduce the Crusader states and to recapture Jerusalem in 1187. Spurred by religious zeal, King Henry II of England and King Philip II of France (later known as "Philip Augustus") ended their conflict with each other to lead a new crusade. The death of Henry (6 July 1189), however, meant the English contingent came under the command of his successor, King Richard I of England. The elderly German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa also responded to the call to arms, leading a massive army across the Balkans and Anatolia. He achieved some victories against the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, but he died whilst crossing a river on 10 June 1190 before reaching the Holy Land. His death caused tremendous grief among the German Crusaders, and most of his troops returned home.
After the Crusaders had driven the Ayyubid army from Acre, Philip—in company with Frederick's successor in command of the German crusaders, Leopold V, Duke of Austria—left the Holy Land in August 1191. Following a major victory by the Crusaders at the Battle of Arsuf, most of the coastline of the Levant was returned to Christian control. On 2 September 1192 Richard and Saladin finalized the Treaty of Jaffa, which recognised Muslim control over Jerusalem but allowed unarmed Christian pilgrims and merchants to visit the city. Richard departed the Holy Land on 9 October 1192. The successes of the Third Crusade allowed Westerners to maintain considerable states in Cyprus and on the Syrian coast.
The failure to re-capture Jerusalem inspired the subsequent Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204, but Europeans would only regain the city—and only briefly—in the Sixth Crusade in 1229.
1195
Battle of Alarcos
Battle of Alarcos (July 18, 1195),[4] was a battle between the Almohads led by Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur and King Alfonso VIII of Castile.[5] It resulted in the defeat of the Castilian forces and their subsequent retreat to Toledo, whereas the Almohads reconquered Trujillo, Montánchez, and Talavera.
Alarcos castle
"The Disgrace of Averroes": al-Mansur banishes Averroes from his court (Louis Figuier, 1867 illustration)
Bab Udaya was added to Qasbat al-Awdaya under al-Mansūr's reign.
Miniature detail of Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile in the Tumbo menor de Castilla
Tusi-Paar in Vatican ; Nasīr ad-Dīn at-Tūsī - Original source: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Arabic ms 319, fol. 28 verso, http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.ar.319/0062 Library of Congress Vatican Exhibit, Rome Reborn, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/images/math19.jpg Tusi couple - 13th century CE sketch by Nasir al-Din Tusi. Generates a linear motion as a sum of two circular motions. Invented for Tusi's planetary model.
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi at the observatory in Maragha, Persia. British Library.
A stamp issued in the republic of Azerbaijan in 2009 honoring Tusi
An animated model of a Tusi couple.
Tusi's two mutual inversions of the couple. Note that, contrary to the description, the circles in the lower animation must rotate in the same direction.
Copernicus' version of the Tusi couple. "The two circles move ... in opposite direction." Was Tusi alluding to a further way of looking at the couple and did Copernicus see this?
The ellipses (green, cyan, red) are hypotrochoids of the Tusi couple.
1201
nasir aldin altusi
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tūsī (Persian: محمد ابن محمد ابن حسن طوسی 18 February 1201 – 26 June 1274), better known as Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (Persian: نصیر الدین طوسی; or simply Tusi /ˈtuːsi/[4] in the West), was a Persian polymath, architect, philosopher, physician, scientist, and theologian.[5] Nasir al-Din al-Tusi was a well published author, writing on subjects of math, engineering, prose, and mysticism. Additionally, al-Tusi made several scientific advancements. In astronomy, al-Tusi created very accurate tables of planetary motion, an updated planetary model, and critiques of Ptolemaic astronomy. He also made strides in logic, mathematics but especially trigonometry, biology, and chemistry. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi left behind a great legacy as well. Tusi is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of medieval Islam,[6] since he is often considered the creator of trigonometry as a mathematical discipline in its own right.[7][8][9] The Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) considered Tusi to be the greatest of the later Persian scholars.[10] There is also reason to believe that he may have influenced Copernican heliocentrism. Nasir proposed that humans are related to animals and that some animals have a limited level of awareness while humans have a superior level of awareness amongst animals. He also framed a very basic evolutionary theory (though markedly different from modern evolutionary theory).
1202
Liber Abaci
Liber Abaci (also spelled as Liber Abbaci;[1] "The Book of Calculation") is a historic 1202 Latin manuscript on arithmetic by Leonardo of Pisa, posthumously known as Fibonacci.
Liber Abaci was among the first Western books to describe the Hindu–Arabic numeral system and to use symbols resembling modern "Arabic numerals". By addressing the applications of both commercial tradesmen and mathematicians, it promoted the superiority of the system, and the use of these glyphs.[2]
Although the book's title has also been translated as "The Book of the Abacus", Sigler (2002) writes that this is an error: the intent of the book is to describe methods of doing calculations without aid of an abacus, and as Ore (1948) confirms, for centuries after its publication the algorismists (followers of the style of calculation demonstrated in Liber Abaci) remained in conflict with the abacists (traditionalists who continued to use the abacus in conjunction with Roman numerals). The historian of mathematics Carl Boyer stated in his History of Mathematics: "The book in which Fibonacci described the new algorism is a celebrated classic, completed in 1202, but it bears a misleading title – Liber abaci (or book of the abacus). It is not on the abacus; it is a very thorough treatise on algebraic methods and problems in which the use of the Hindu-Arabic numerals is strongly advocated."
A page of Fibonacci's Liber Abaci from the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze showing (in box on right) the Fibonacci sequence with the position in the sequence labeled with Latin numbers and Roman numerals and the value in Hindu-Arabic numerals.
![Statue of Fibonacci (1863) by Giovanni Paganucci in the Camposanto di Pisa[a]](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/ff06607a-f0aa-488c-b0b8-f85c8af97220/7d4857e8-0a75-47ea-874c-9694ef809809_rw_1200.jpg?h=9e7b483ff45258f58c47b2c838cb587a)
Statue of Fibonacci (1863) by Giovanni Paganucci in the Camposanto di Pisa[a]
Nagari and Devanagari numerals with handwritten variants
The first Brahmi numerals, ancestors of Hindu-Arabic numerals, used by Ashoka in his Edicts of Ashoka c. 250 BC
Fibonacci tree of height 6. Balance factors green; heights red. The keys in the left spine are Fibonacci numbers.
The Arabic numeral system first appeared in Europe in the Spanish Codex Vigilanus, year 976.
The Fibonacci numbers are the sums of the "shallow" diagonals (shown in red) of Pascal's triangle.
Development of Hindu–Arabic numerals
In a growing idealized population, the number of rabbit pairs form the Fibonacci sequence. At the end of the nth month, the number of pairs is equal to Fn.
A Fibonacci spiral approximates the golden spiral using quarter-circle arcs inscribed in squares derived from the Fibonacci sequence.
Golden spirals are self-similar. The shape is infinitely repeated when magnified.
A section of the Mandelbrot set following a logarithmic spiral
1202
The Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate, the strongest Muslim state of the time. However, a sequence of economic and political events culminated in the Crusader army's 1202 siege of Zara and the 1204 sack of Constantinople, the capital of the Greek Christian-controlled Byzantine Empire, rather than Egypt as originally planned. This led to the partitioning of the Byzantine Empire by the Crusaders.
The Republic of Venice contracted with the Crusader leaders to build a dedicated fleet to transport their invasion force. However, the leaders greatly overestimated the number of soldiers who would embark from Venice, since many sailed from other ports, and the army that appeared could not pay the contracted price. In lieu of payment, the Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo proposed that the Crusaders back him in attacking the rebellious city of Zadar (Zara) on the eastern Adriatic coast. This led in November 1202 to the siege and sack of Zara, the first attack against a Catholic city by a Catholic Crusader army. The city was then brought under Venetian control. When the Pope heard of this, he temporarily excommunicated the Crusader army.
In January 1203, en route to Jerusalem, the Crusader leadership entered into an agreement with the Byzantine prince Alexios Angelos to divert their main force to Constantinople and restore his deposed father Isaac II Angelos as emperor, who would then add his support to their invasion of Jerusalem. On 23 June 1203, the main Crusader army reached Constantinople, while other contingents (perhaps a majority of all crusaders) continued to Acre.
In August 1203, following the siege of Constantinople, Alexios was crowned co-emperor. However, in January 1204 he was deposed by a popular uprising, depriving the Crusaders of their promised bounty payments. Following the murder of Alexios on 8 February, the Crusaders decided on the outright conquest of the city. In April 1204, they captured and plundered the city's enormous wealth. Only a handful of the Crusaders continued to the Holy Land thereafter.
The conquest of Constantinople was followed by the fragmentation of the Byzantine Empire into three states centered in Nicaea, Trebizond and Epirus. The Crusaders then founded several new Crusader states, known as Frankokratia, in former Byzantine territory, largely hinged upon the Latin Empire of Constantinople. The presence of the Latin Crusader states almost immediately led to war with the Byzantine successor states and with the Bulgarian Empire. The Nicaean Empire eventually recovered Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire in 1261.
The Fourth Crusade is considered to have solidified the East–West Schism. The crusade dealt an irrevocable blow to the Byzantine/Roman Empire, contributing to its decline and fall.
ConquestOf Constantinople By The Crusaders In 1204 , David Aubert (1449-79)
The crusaders conquering the City of Zadar, painted by Tintoretto
Dandolo Preaching the Crusade by Gustave Doré
The Crusader attack on Constantinople, from a Venetian manuscript of Geoffrey de Villehardouin's history, c. 1330
Capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 , Palma Le Jeune (1544–1620)
Venetian mosaic from 1213 depicting the fall of Constantinople
The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople (Eugène Delacroix, 1840). The most infamous action of the Fourth Crusade was the sack of the Orthodox Christian city of Constantinople. Eugène Delacroix
Alexios V negotiating with Doge Enrico Dandolo, by Gustave Doré
Tomb of Iltutmish (r. 1211–1236) in the Qutub Minar complex.
The Khaljis captured Jaisalmer Fort in Jaisalmer, Rajputana, in 1299.
The Alai Darwaza, completed in 1311 during the Khalji dynasty.
![The Sultan of Delhi (top, flag: ) and the King of Colombo (bottom, flag: , identified as Christian due to the early Saint Thomas Christianity there, and the Catholic mission under Jordanus since 1329)[82] in the contemporary Catalan Atlas of 1375.[83] The captions are informative,[84] and several of the location names are accurate.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/ff06607a-f0aa-488c-b0b8-f85c8af97220/2c939adc-0763-427c-9408-8e15f6476828_rw_1200.jpg?h=7db661c014132775607e6455672d1fbc)
The Sultan of Delhi (top, flag: ) and the King of Colombo (bottom, flag: , identified as Christian due to the early Saint Thomas Christianity there, and the Catholic mission under Jordanus since 1329)[82] in the contemporary Catalan Atlas of 1375.[83] The captions are informative,[84] and several of the location names are accurate.
![The Tughlaq dynasty is remembered for its architectural patronage, such as the construction of Firoz Shah Kotla. It reused old Buddhists pillars erected by Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, such as the Delhi-Topra pillar. The Sultanate initially wanted to use the pillars to make mosque minarets. Firuz Shah Tughlaq decided otherwise and had them installed near mosques.[97] The meaning of the Brahmi script on the pillars (the Edicts of Ashoka) was unknown in Firuz Shah's time.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/ff06607a-f0aa-488c-b0b8-f85c8af97220/7db0e3b1-1a00-4933-a9c2-2936f8c0614f_rw_1200.JPG?h=1a42a675a9cd71f4c422c87238ffba24)
The Tughlaq dynasty is remembered for its architectural patronage, such as the construction of Firoz Shah Kotla. It reused old Buddhists pillars erected by Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, such as the Delhi-Topra pillar. The Sultanate initially wanted to use the pillars to make mosque minarets. Firuz Shah Tughlaq decided otherwise and had them installed near mosques.[97] The meaning of the Brahmi script on the pillars (the Edicts of Ashoka) was unknown in Firuz Shah's time.
The tomb of Muhammad Shah at Lodi Gardens, New Delhi.
The Qutb Minar (left, begun c. 1200) next to the Alai Darwaza gatehouse (1311); Qutb Complex in Delhi.
Tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam at Multan, built during the reign of Ghiyas-ud-Din Tughluq in 1320 AD
Screen of the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque, Ajmer, c. 1229; Corbel arches, some cusped.
Tomb of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (d. 1325), Delhi
Rani ki vav is a stepwell, built by the Chaulukya dynasty, located in Patan; the city was sacked by Sultan of Delhi Qutb-ud-din Aybak between 1200 and 1210, and again by the Allauddin Khilji in 1298.
1206
The Delhi Sultanate
, or the Sultanate of Delhi, was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent during the period of Medieval India, for 320 years (1206–1526).[10][11] Following the invasion of South Asia by the Ghurid dynasty, five unrelated heterogeneous dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1414),[12] the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as well as some parts of southern Nepal.[13]
The foundation of the Sultanate was laid by the Ghurid conqueror Muhammad Ghori who routed the Rajput Confederacy led by Ajmer ruler Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192 near Tarain, after suffering a reverse against them earlier.[14] As a successor to the Ghurid dynasty, the Delhi Sultanate was originally one among a number of principalities ruled by the Turkic slave-generals of Muhammad Ghori, including Yildiz, Aibak and Qubacha, that had inherited and divided the Ghurid territories amongst themselves.[15] After a long period of infighting, the Mamluks were overthrown in the Khalji revolution, which marked the transfer of power from the Turks to a heterogeneous Indo-Muslim nobility.[16][17] Khalji and Tughlaq rule saw a new wave of rapid Muslim conquests deep into South India.[18][19] The sultanate finally reached the peak of its geographical reach during the Tughlaq dynasty, occupying most of the Indian subcontinent under Muhammad bin Tughluq.[20] This was followed by decline due to Hindu reconquests, Hindu kingdoms such as the Vijayanagara and Mewar asserting independence, and new Muslim sultanates such as the Bengal and Bahmani Sultanates breaking off.[21][22] In 1526, the Sultanate was conquered and succeeded by the Mughal Empire.
The establishment of the Sultanate drew the Indian subcontinent more closely into international and multicultural Islamic social and economic networks.[23](as seen concretely in the development of the Hindustani language[24] and Indo-Islamic architecture),[25][26] being one of the few powers to repel attacks of the Mongols (from the Chagatai Khanate)[27] and for enthroning one of the few female rulers in Islamic history, Razia Sultan, who reigned from 1236 to 1240.[28] Bakhtiyar Khalji's annexations involved a large-scale desecration of Hindu and Buddhist temples[29] (contributing to the decline of Buddhism in East India and Bengal),[30][31] and the destruction of universities and libraries.[32][33] Mongolian raids on West and Central Asia set the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, intelligentsia, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from those regions into the subcontinent, thereby establishing Islamic culture there.
1209
The Franciscans
are a group of related mendicant Christian religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include three independent orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest contemporary male order), orders for women religious such as the Order of Saint Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis open to male and female members. They adhere to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of the founder and of his main associates and followers, such as Clare of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, and Elizabeth of Hungary. Several smaller Protestant Franciscan orders exist as well, notably in the Anglican and Lutheran traditions (e.g. the Community of Francis and Clare).[6]
Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from Pope Innocent III in 1209 to form a new religious order. The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope did not allow ownership of property, requiring members of the order to beg for food while preaching. The austerity was meant to emulate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while staying in church properties. Clare of Assisi, under Francis's guidance, founded the Poor Clares (Order of Saint Clare) of the Franciscans.
The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in the final revision of the Rule in 1223. The degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions.[7][8] The Order of Friars Minor, previously known as the "Observant" branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the "Conventuals" (formed 1517) and "Capuchins" (1520). The Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of several smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII.[9] The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases. Conventual Franciscans are sometimes referred to as minorites or greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, although the term elsewhere refers to Cistercians instead.
Francis of Assisi, founder of the Order of Friars Minor; oldest known portrait in existence of Francis, dating back to his retreat to Subiaco (1223–1224)
Regula bullata, the rule confirmed by Pope Honorius III
The Confirmation of the Franciscan Rule by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494), Capella Sassetti, Florence
A Franciscan convent in Mafra in Portugal
Bonaventure (1221–1274), painting by Claude François (c. 1650–1660)
Franciscan friars look at the sea and city landscape from the Convent of Santo Antônio (Saint Anthony) in Rio de Janeiro (capital city of the Kingdom of Portugal at the time), Brazil c. 1816
Clare of Assisi (1194–1253), founder of the Poor Clares, in a painting by Simone Martini (1284–1344) in the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi
Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294), statue from the 19th century in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
1211
The Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty
, also known as the Mongol–Jin War, was fought between the Mongol Empire and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in Manchuria and North China. The war, which started in 1211, lasted over 23 years and ended with the complete conquest of the Jin dynasty by the Mongols in 1234.
In 1210, a delegation arrived at the court of Genghis Khan (r. 1206–27) to proclaim the ascension of Wanyan Yongji to the Jin throne and demanded the submission of the Mongols as a vassal state. Because the Jurchens defeated the powerful steppe nomads and allied with the Keraites and the Tatars, they claimed sovereignty over all the tribes of the steppe. High court officials in the Jin government defected to the Mongols and urged Genghis Khan to attack the Jin dynasty. But fearful of a trap or some other nefarious scheme, Genghis Khan refused. Upon receiving the order to demonstrate submission, Genghis Khan reportedly turned to the south and spat on the ground; then he mounted his horse, and rode toward the north, leaving the stunned envoy choking in his dust. His defiance of the Jin envoys was tantamount to a declaration of war between the Mongols and Jurchens.[4]
1211
The Battle of Yehuling
, literally the Battle of Wild Fox Ridge, was a major decisive battle fought between the Mongol Empire and Jurchen-led Jin dynasty during the first stage of the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty. The battle was fought between August and October 1211 at Yehuling (野狐嶺; lit. "Wild Fox Ridge"), which is located northwest of present-day Wanquan District, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. The battle concluded with a total Mongol victory that allowed them to overrun and conquer the northern part of the Jin. It also hastened the weakening and decline of the Jin dynasty.
The Battle of Zhongdu (present-day Beijing) 1215
was a battle in 1215 between the Mongols and the Jurchen Jin dynasty, which controlled northern China.[1] The Mongols won and continued their conquest of China.
Significant conquests and movements of Genghis Khan and his generals
An illustration of the Battle of Yehuling, from Jami' al-tawarikh by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani
Siege of Beijing. Jami' al-tawarikh, Rashid al-Din.
Genghis Khan and chinese envoys. Jami' al-tawarikh, Rashid al-Din.
Workers moving material to construct Khanbaliq . The Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge), constructed from 1189 to 1192, although the current bridge was reconstructed in 1698.
The Chengling Pagoda of Zhengding, Hebei Province, built between 1161 and 1189.
Genghis Khan Monument in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China
Genghis Khan as portrayed in a 14th-century Yuan era album; now located in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan. The original version was in black and white; produced by the Mongol painter Ho-li-hosun in 1278 under the commission of Kublai Khan.
Portrayal of the battle by Francisco de Paula Van Halen (1864)
Arms of Innocent III at Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome
Innocent III honored by the U.S. House of Representatives
Flag of Almohads
1212
las navas de tolosa
In 1195, the Almohads defeated Alfonso VIII of Castile in the Battle of Alarcos. After this victory, they took several important cities: Trujillo, Plasencia, Talavera, Cuenca, and Uclés. Then, in 1211, Muhammad al-Nasir crossed the Strait of Gibraltar with a powerful army, invaded Christian territory, and captured Salvatierra Castle, the stronghold of the knights of the Order of Calatrava. The threat to the Hispanic Christian kingdoms was so great that Pope Innocent III called Christian knights to a crusade.
The crushing defeat of the Almohads significantly hastened their decline both in the Iberian Peninsula and in the Maghreb a decade later. That gave further impulse to the Christian Reconquest and sharply reduced the already declining power of the Moors in Iberia. Shortly after the battle, the Castilians took Baeza and then Úbeda, major fortified cities near the battlefield and gateways to invade Andalusia. According to a letter from Alfonso VIII of Castile to Pope Innocent III, Baeza was evacuated and its people moved to Úbeda; Alfonso laid siege, killing 60,000 Muslims and enslaving many more. According to the Latin Chronicle of Kings of Castile the number given is almost 100,000 Saracens, including children and women, who were captured.
1215
magna carta
Magna Carta Libertatum (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called Magna Carta (also Magna Charta; "Great Charter"),[a] is a royal charter[4][5] of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.[b] First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton, to make peace between the unpopular king and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood behind their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War.
After John's death, the regency government of his young son, Henry III, reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its more radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of the war in 1217, it formed part of the peace treaty agreed at Lambeth, where the document acquired the name "Magna Carta", to distinguish it from the smaller Charter of the Forest which was issued at the same time. Short of funds, Henry reissued the charter again in 1225 in exchange for a grant of new taxes. His son, Edward I, repeated the exercise in 1297, this time confirming it as part of England's statute law. The charter became part of English political life and was typically renewed by each monarch in turn, although as time went by and the fledgling Parliament of England passed new laws, it lost some of its practical significance.
The Magna Carta (originally known as the Charter of Liberties) of 1215, written in iron gall ink on parchment in medieval Latin, using standard abbreviations of the period, authenticated with the Great Seal of King John. The original wax seal was lost over the centuries. This document is held at the British Library and is identified as "British Library Cotton MS Augustus II.106".
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the style used by the Government of King Charles III from 2022 to the present (as used in all places except Scotland). “ Quarterly, First and Fourth Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued Azure (for England), Second quarter Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory counter-flory Gules (for Scotland), Third quarter Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland), the whole surrounded by the Garter; for a Crest, the imperial crown Proper; for Supporters, dexter a lion rampant guardant Or crowned as the Crest, sinister a unicorn Argent armed, crined and unguled Proper, gorged with a coronet Or composed of crosses patée and fleurs de lys a chain affixed thereto passing between the forelegs and reflexed over the back also Or; Motto 'Dieu et mon Droit’ ('God and my Right') below the shield. ” PINCHES, J.H & R.V., The Royal Heraldry of England, 1974, Heraldry Today.
King John of England, 1167-1216. Illuminated manuscript, De Rege Johanne, 1300-1400. MS Cott. Claud DII, folio 116, British Library.
The Charter of the Forest re-issued in 1225, held by the British Library
1225 version of Magna Carta issued by Henry III, held in the National Archives
1297 version of the Great Charter, on display in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.
The jurist Edward Coke made extensive political use of Magna Carta.
King John holding a church, painted c. 1250–1259 by Matthew Paris
1217
The Fifth Crusade
was a campaign in a series of Crusades by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering Egypt, ruled by the powerful Ayyubid sultanate, led by al-Adil, brother of Saladin.
After the failure of the Fourth Crusade, Innocent III again called for a crusade, and began organizing Crusading armies led by Andrew II of Hungary and Leopold VI of Austria, soon to be joined by John of Brienne. An initial campaign in late 1217 in Syria was inconclusive, and Andrew departed. A German army led by cleric Oliver of Paderborn, and a mixed army of Dutch, Flemish and Frisian soldiers led by William I of Holland, then joined the Crusade in Acre, with a goal of first conquering Egypt, viewed as the key to Jerusalem. There, cardinal Pelagius Galvani arrived as papal legate and de facto leader of the Crusade, supported by John of Brienne and the masters of the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who had taken the cross in 1215, did not participate as promised.
Following the successful siege of Damietta in 1218–1219, the Crusaders occupied the port for two years. Al-Kamil, now sultan of Egypt, offered attractive peace terms, including the restoration of Jerusalem to Christian rule. The sultan was rebuked by Pelagius several times, and the Crusaders marched south towards Cairo in July 1221. En route, they attacked a stronghold of al-Kamil at the battle of Mansurah, but they were defeated, forced to surrender. The terms of surrender included the retreat from Damietta—leaving Egypt altogether—and an eight-year truce. The Fifth Crusade ended in September 1221, a Crusader defeat that accomplished nothing.
The siege of Alcácer do Sal lasted from 30 July to 18 October 1217. The well fortified city of Alcácer do Sal was a frontier outpost of the Almohad Caliphate facing Portugal.
Andrew at the head of his crusader army (from the Illuminated Chronicle)
The Conquest of Damiate. This painting was made for above the mantelpiece of the court-martial room in the building of the Haarlem Cluveniers (gunmen).
Frisian crusaders attack a tower near Damietta during the Fifth Crusade (from Matthew Paris' 13th-century Chronica Majora).
Saint Francis of Assisi and Illuminato da Rieti before the Sultan al-Kamil. 15th century fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli.
Khwarazmshah Il-Arslan at his coronation, painting from the book Jami' al-Tawarikh (published circa 1300 CE).
Mausoleum of Khwarazmshah Il-Arslan, in present-day Turkmenistan
Luster star-shaped tile, showing a sultan surrounded by members of the court, dated 1211–12 CE. Kashan, Iran.
Death of Muhammad II of Khwarazm. From Jami' al-tawarikh by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani
Depiction of the Terken Khatun as being captive to Mongols. Ğāmi‛ al-tavārīḫ(Rašīd al-Dīn Fazl-ullāh Hamadānī) manuscript, c. 1430-1434
Jalal al-Din crossing the Indus River, escaping Genghis Khan and the Mongol army.
Routes taken by Mongol invaders and Mongol successor khanates
1219
The Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia
(Persian: حمله مغول به خوارزمشاهیان) took place between 1219 and 1221,[2] as troops of the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan invaded the lands of the Khwarazmian Empire in Central Asia. The campaign, which followed the annexation of the Qara Khitai khanate, saw widespread devastation and atrocities, and marked the completion of the Mongol conquest of Central Asia, and began the Mongol conquest of Persia.
Both belligerents, although large, had been formed recently: the Khwarazmian dynasty had expanded from their homeland to replace the Seljuk Empire in the late 1100s and early 1200s; near-simultaneously, Genghis Khan had unified the Mongolic peoples and conquered the Western Xia dynasty. Although relations were initially cordial, Genghis was angered by a series of diplomatic provocations. When a senior Mongol diplomat was executed by Khwarazmshah Muhammed II, the Khan mobilized his forces, estimated to be between 90,000 and 200,000 men, and invaded. The Shah's forces were widely dispersed and probably outnumbered — realizing his disadvantage, he decided to garrison his cities individually to bog the Mongols down. However, through excellent organization and planning, they were able to isolate and conquer the Transoxianan cities of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Gurganj. Genghis and his youngest son Tolui then laid waste to Khorasan, destroying Herat, Nishapur, and Merv, three of the largest cities in the world. Meanwhile, Muhammed II was forced into flight by the Mongol generals Subutai and Jebe; unable to reach any bastions of support, he died destitute on an island in the Caspian Sea. His son and heir Jalal-al Din managed to mobilize substantial forces, defeating a Mongol general at the Battle of Parwan; he was however crushed by Genghis himself at the Battle of the Indus a few months later.
After clearing up any remaining resistance, Genghis returned to his war against the Jin dynasty in 1223. The war had been one of the bloodiest in human history, with total casualties estimated to be between two and fifteen million people. The subjugation of the Khwarazmian lands would provide a base for the Mongols' later assaults on Georgia and the rest of Persia; when the empire later divided into separate khanates, the Persian lands formerly ruled by the Khwarazmids would be governed by the Ilkhanate, while the northern cities would be ruled by the Chagatai Khanate. The campaign, which saw the Mongols engage and defeat a non-sinicized state for the first time, was a pivotal moment in the growth of the Mongol Empire.
1221
pax mongolica
(Latin for "Mongol Peace"), less often known as Pax Tatarica[1] ("Tatar Peace"), is a historiographical term modelled after the original phrase Pax Romana which describes the stabilizing effects of the conquests of the Mongol Empire on the social, cultural and economic life of the inhabitants of the vast Eurasian territory that the Mongols conquered in the 13th and 14th centuries. The term is used to describe the eased communication and commerce the unified administration helped to create and the period of relative peace that followed the Mongols' vast conquests.
The conquests of Genghis Khan (r. 1206–1227) and his successors, spanning from Southeast Asia to Eastern Europe, effectively connected the Eastern world with the Western world. The Silk Road, connecting trade centres across Asia and Europe, came under the sole rule of the Mongol Empire. It was commonly said that "a maiden bearing a nugget of gold on her head could wander safely throughout the realm".[2][3] Despite the political fragmentation of the Mongol Empire into four khanates (Yuan dynasty, Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate and Ilkhanate), nearly a century of conquest and civil war was followed by relative stability in the early 14th century. The end of the Pax Mongolica was marked by the disintegration of the khanates and the outbreak of the Black Death in Asia which spread along trade routes to much of the world in the mid-14th century.
A close up of the Catalan Atlas depicting Marco Polo travelling to the East during the Pax Mongolica
The expansion of the Mongol Empire
Yuan dynasty banknote with its printing wood plate, 1287 CE.
The Silk Road was a system of trade routes connecting East and West
The Castle of Monte San Giovanni Campano
The remains of Thomas Aquinas are buried in the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse.
Saint Thomas Aquinas by Luis Muñoz Lafuente
1225
thomas d'aquin
Thomas Aquinas, OP (/əˈkwaɪnəs/; Italian: Tommaso d'Aquino, lit. 'Thomas of Aquino'; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian[9][10] Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known within the tradition as the Doctor Angelicus, the Doctor Communis, and the Doctor Universalis.[a] The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio, Italy. Among other things, he was a prominent proponent of natural theology and the father of a school of thought (encompassing both theology and philosophy) known as Thomism. He argued that God is the source of both the light of natural reason and the light of faith.[11] He has been described as "the most influential thinker of the medieval period"[12] and "the greatest of the medieval philosopher-theologians".[13] His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy is derived from his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory.
1227
Mustansiriya Madrasah
(Arabic: المدرسة المستنصرية) was a medieval-era scholarly complex that provided a universal system of higher education. It was established in 1227 CE and was named after and built by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir in Baghdad, Iraq. The Madrasa taught many different subjects, including medicine, math, literature, grammar, philosophy, and Islamic religious studies. However, the major focus of education was Islamic law. It became the most prominent and high-ranking center for Islamic studies in all of Baghdad.[1] Madrasas during the Abbasid period were used as the predominant instrument to foster the spread of Sunni thought as well as a way to extend the founder's pious ideals.[2] The architecture of the Madrasa was also an important example of Islamic architectural development in Baghdad. The Madrasa has experienced several periods of decline and reemergence throughout its history. The most significant degradation to the Madrasa's architecture and position within Baghdad was the Mongol Siege of Baghdad (1258). Today, the Madrasa is in a state of restoration as is it being overseen by the Directorate of Antiquities in Iraq. It is currently a part of the Al-Mustansiriya University, and is located on the left bank of the Tigris River. Adjacent landmarks include the Saray souq, the Baghdadi Museum, Mutanabbi Street, the Abbasid Palace, and Caliph's Street.
Mustansiriya school, main entrance
Mustansiriya University Building in Baghdad 2005
Courtyard of Mustansiriya Medical College
Frederick II (left) meets al-Kamil (right)
The Kingdom of Jerusalem after the Sixth Crusade
Chronica Giovani Villani, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
1228
The Sixth Crusade
(, also known as the Crusade of Frederick II, was a military expedition to recapture Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade and involved very little actual fighting. The diplomatic maneuvering of the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, Frederick II, resulted in the Kingdom of Jerusalem regaining some control over Jerusalem for much of the ensuing fifteen years as well as over other areas of the Holy Land.
The Barons' Crusade (1239–1241)
, also called the Crusade of 1239, was a crusade to the Holy Land that, in territorial terms, was the most successful crusade since the First Crusade. Called by Pope Gregory IX, the Barons' Crusade broadly embodied the highest point of papal endeavor "to make crusading a universal Christian undertaking."[2] Gregory IX called for a crusade in France, England, and Hungary with different degrees of success.[2] Although the crusaders did not achieve any glorious military victories, they used diplomacy to successfully play the two warring factions of the Ayyubid dynasty (as-Salih Ismail in Damascus and as-Salih Ayyub in Egypt) against one another for even more concessions than Frederick II had gained during the more well-known Sixth Crusade. For a few years, the Barons' Crusade returned the Kingdom of Jerusalem to its largest size since 1187.
1239 Beit Hanoun battle, by Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris's illustration of the treaty between Peter and Dawud
Henry II of Silesia is killed in the battle of Liegnitz. Freytag's Hedwig manuscript, 1451.
Battle of Legnica (legnitz) 1241. From The Hedwig Codex, also known as the Codex of Lubin
1241
The Battle of Legnica
(Polish: bitwa pod Legnicą), also known as the Battle of Liegnitz (German: Schlacht von Liegnitz) or Battle of Wahlstatt (German: Schlacht bei Wahlstatt), was a battle between the Mongol Empire and combined European forces that took place at the village of Legnickie Pole (Wahlstatt), approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) southeast of the city of Legnica in the Duchy of Silesia on 9 April 1241.[7]: 97–99
A combined force of Poles and Moravians under the command of Duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia, supported by feudal nobility and a few knights from military orders sent by Pope Gregory IX, attempted to halt the Mongol invasion of Poland. The battle took place two days before the Mongol victory over the Hungarians at the much larger Battle of Mohi.
Northern Europe in the 1400s, showing the extent of the Hanseatic League
Ubena von Bremen, a replica of the Bremen cog
Hanseatic Seal of Elbing (now Elbląg)
The Hanseatic League left a significant cultural and architectural heritage. It is especially renowned for its Brick Gothic monuments, such as Stralsund's St. Nikolai Church and its City Hall, shown here. The old town of Stralsund, together with Wismar, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.…
Foundation of the alliance between Lübeck and Hamburg,Hamburg Ship Law. Cover picture from the section on sea law 'Van schiprechte' ('Of shipping laws' in Middle Low German) of the Hamburg town law from 1497.
Main trading routes of the Hanseatic League
Stargard Mill Gate, Pomerania, today in Poland
Town Hall of Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia)
Georg Giese from Danzig, 34-year-old German Hanseatic merchant at the Steelyard, painted in London by Hans Holbein
![View of the Harbour Crane [de; pl] in the port city of Gdańsk (Danzig), today in Poland](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/ff06607a-f0aa-488c-b0b8-f85c8af97220/20ab4363-6ede-4a36-95f2-3337491a2126_rw_1200.jpg?h=3d76e741f845878489713b1a73effa11)
View of the Harbour Crane [de; pl] in the port city of Gdańsk (Danzig), today in Poland
Hanseatic museum in Bergen, Norway
Map of the Hanseatic League, showing principal Hanseatic cities
Modern, faithful painting of the Adler von Lübeck – the world's largest ship in its time
Deutsche Luft Hansa was founded on 6 January 1926 in Berlin. The name of the company means "German Hansa of the Air". The Hansa or Hanseatic League dominated maritime trade in the Baltic Sea area for hundreds of years
Illustrated PSE with special cancellation issued to mark 29th Hanseatic Days in Novgorod, Russia, 2009
The Oostershuis, a kontor in Antwerp
Heinrich Sudermann (* 1520; 1591), German jurist and First Syndicus of the Hanseatic League
1241
The Hanseatic League
(/ˌhænsiˈætɪk/; Middle Low German: Hanse, Düdesche Hanse, Hansa; Modern German: Deutsche Hanse; Dutch: Hanze; Latin: Hansa Teutonica)[3] was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 12th century, the League between the 13th and 15th centuries ultimately encompassed nearly 200 settlements, across seven modern-day countries ranging from Estonia in the north and east to the Netherlands in the west and Kraków, Poland, in the south.[4]
The League originated from various loose associations of German traders and towns formed to advance mutual commercial interests, such as protection against robbers. These arrangements gradually coalesced into the Hanseatic League, whose traders enjoyed toll privileges, protection, and diplomatic privileges in affiliated communities and their trade routes. Economic interdependence and kinship ties between merchant families, who held important positions in towns, led to deeper political integration and removing obstacles to trade.[5] Hanseatic Cities gradually developed a common legal system governing their trade, even operating their own armies for mutual defense.
During the peak of its power, the Hanseatic League dominated maritime trade in the North and Baltic seas. Its commercial reach extended as far as the Kingdom of Portugal to the west, the Kingdom of England to the north, the Republic of Novgorod to the east, and the Republic of Venice to the south, with trading posts established in numerous towns and cities across Europe; some of these, like the Kontors, became extraterritorial entities that operated almost exclusively under Hanseatic law. Hanseatic merchants, or Hansards, operated in basic private companies and were widely renowned for their access to a variety of commodities, subsequently gaining privileges and protections abroad. The collective economic influence made the League a powerful force, capable of imposing blockades and even waging war against kingdoms and principalities.
1242
The Battle on the Ice
(German: Schlacht auf dem Eise; Russian: Ледовое побоище, Ledovoye poboishche; Estonian: Jäälahing), alternatively known as the Battle of Lake Peipus (German: Schlacht auf dem Peipussee), took place on 5 April 1242. It was fought largely on the frozen Lake Peipus between the united forces of the Republic of Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal, led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, and the forces of the Livonian Order and Bishopric of Dorpat, led by Bishop Hermann of Dorpat.
The battle was significant because its outcome determined whether Western Catholicism or Eastern Orthodox Christianity would dominate in the region. In the end, the battle represented a significant defeat for the Catholic forces during the Northern Crusades and brought an end to their campaigns against the Orthodox Novgorod Republic and other Slavic territories for the next century. The event portrayed in Sergei Eisenstein's historical drama film, Alexander Nevsky (1938), later created a popular but inaccurate image of the battle.
Depiction of the battle in the late 16th century illuminated manuscript Life of Alexander Nevsky
Medieval Livonia
1244
The Battle of La Forbie
, also known as the Battle of Hiribya, was fought October 17, 1244 – October 18, 1244 between the allied armies (drawn from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the crusading orders, the breakaway Ayyubids of Damascus, Homs, and Kerak) and the Egyptian army of the Ayyubid Sultan as-Salih Ayyub, reinforced with Khwarezmian mercenaries. The resulting Ayyubid victory led to the call for the Seventh Crusade and marked the collapse of Christian power in the Holy Land.
Battle of La Forbie as depicted in the manuscript identified as Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 016II; the second part of the Chronica Majora, a work written and illustrated by the English monk Matthew Paris.
Siege of Seville in the eastern part
Conquest of Seville to the west. Model of the Historical Military Museum of Seville.
Model of the Siege of Seville in the southeastern part in the Military History Museum in Seville
1247
The siege of Seville
(July 1247 – November 1248)
was a 16-month successful investment during the Reconquista of Seville by forces of Ferdinand III of Castile.[1] Although perhaps eclipsed in geopolitical importance by the rapid capture of Córdoba in 1236, which sent a shockwave through the Muslim world, the siege of Seville was nonetheless the most complex military operation undertaken by Fernando III.[2] It is also the last major operation of the Early Reconquista. The operation also marked the appearance of indigenous naval forces of Castile-León of military significance. In effect, Ramón de Bonifaz was the first admiral of Castile, although he never held an official title of that kind.[3]
In 1246, after the conquest of Jaén, Seville and Granada were the only major cities in the Iberian Peninsula that had not acquiesced to Christian suzerainty. Of the two, Granada would remain semi-independent until 1492.
During the summer of 1247, Castilian armies isolated the city to the north and east. This paved the way for the siege, which started when Ramón de Bonifaz sailed with thirteen galleys, accompanied by some smaller ships, up the Guadalquivir and scattered some forty smaller vessels trying to oppose him. On 3 May the Castilian fleet broke the pontoon bridge linking Seville and Triana.[1]
St Albertus Magnus wrote that the Moorish defenders used artillery which was loaded with rocks in the siege, but this is not certain that is describing the type of firearms.
Due to a famine, the city capitulated on 23 November 1248. The terms specified that the Castillian troops would be allowed to enter the alcázar no later than a month later. Ferdinand made his triumphant entry into the city on 22 December 1248.[1] Muslim chronicles record that some 300,000 inhabitants left the city. This number is considered exaggerated by O'Callaghan.
Medieval gateway of the castle of Faro.
Medieval gateway of the castle of Faro.
1249
The siege of Faro
occurred when Portuguese forces, under the command of King Afonso III of Portugal, captured the city of Faro in 1249 from the Taifa of Niebla. The event marked the end of Portuguese Reconquista efforts in the Iberian peninsula.
The conquest took place in the context of the gradual conquest of the cities of the Guadiana valley and the eastern part of the Algarve from Ibn-Mahfuz, lord of the taifa of Niebla and the last representative of Muslim power in western Al-Andalus. The fall of Mértola, Tavira, Ayamonte, Cacela[disambiguation needed] and the fall of Seville in 1248, left Ibn-Mahfuz completely isolated, and with no no other choice but to come to terms with Ferdinand III of Castile.[1]
The city of Faro, isolated and without hope of relief from forces of the Muslim world, capitulated before a fierce and well disciplined force, even though such a force was probably composed of a small number of men. This explains why contemporary Muslim sources refer to the event as the city having been "delivered" to the King of Portugal.[1]
Louis IX meeting Pope Innocent IV at Cluny , Grandes Chroniques de France, Paris - http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/manuscrits/man5/i2_0010.htm
Ascelin of Lombardy with the Mongol general Baiju.by David Aubert (1462)
Jean de Joinville presenting his book Life of Saint Louis to Louis X of France, miniature, 1330s.
Louis IX on a ship departing from Aigues-Mortes, for the Seventh Crusade.
Map of Seventh Crusade
Battle of Damietta in 1218 , miniature from the Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris (c. 1255)
Battle of Mansura (1250). Illumination from the manuscript of the chronicler Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, Life and Miracles of Saint Louis, 14th century, National Library of France
Saint-Louis taken prisoner and ransomed. 7th crusade
1248
The Seventh Crusade
(1248–1254) was the first of the two Crusades led by Louis IX of France. Also known as the Crusade of Louis IX to the Holy Land, it aimed to reclaim the Holy Land by attacking Egypt, the main seat of Muslim power in the Near East. The Crusade was conducted in response to setbacks in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, beginning with the loss of the Holy City in 1244, and was preached by Innocent IV in conjunction with a crusade against emperor Frederick II, Baltic rebellions and Mongol incursions. It initially met with success but ended in defeat, with most of the army – including the king – captured by the Muslims.
Following his release, Louis stayed in the Holy Land for four years, doing what he could towards the re-establishment of the kingdom. The struggle between the papacy and Holy Roman Empire paralyzed Europe, with few answering Louis' calls for help following his capture and ransoming. The one answer was the Shepherds’ Crusade, started to rescue the king and meeting with disaster. In 1254, Louis returned to France having concluded some important treaties. The second of Louis' Crusades was his equally unsuccessful 1270 expedition to Tunis, the Eighth Crusade, where he died of dysentery shortly after the campaign landed.
June 1249
The siege of Damietta .
Louis IX of France landed at Damietta in 1249. Egypt would, Louis thought, provide a base from which to attack Jerusalem, and its wealth and supply of grain would keep the crusaders fed and equipped.
On 6 June Damietta was taken with little resistance from the Egyptians, who withdrew further up the Nile. Louis was able to build a stockade for the whole Crusade camp with the wood from 24 captured Egyptian trebuchets. The flooding of the Nile had not been taken into account, however, and it soon grounded Louis and his army at Damietta for six months, where the knights sat back and enjoyed the spoils of war. Louis ignored the agreement made during the Fifth Crusade that Damietta should be given to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, now a rump state in Acre, but he did set up an archbishopric there (under the authority of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem) and used the city as a base to direct military operations against the Muslims of Syria.
February 1250
The Battle of Mansurah .
was fought from 8 to 11 February 1250, between Crusaders led by Louis IX, King of France, and Ayyubid forces led by Sultana Shajar al-Durr, vizier Fakhr ad-Din ibn as-Shaikh, Faris ad-Din Aktai and Baibars al-Bunduqdari. It was fought in present-day Mansoura, Egypt. The Crusader force was enticed into entering the town where it was set upon by the Muslim force. The Crusaders withdrew in disorder to their encampment where they were besieged by the Muslims. The Crusaders broke-out and withdrew to Damietta in early April.
April 1250
The Battle of Fariskur
was the last major battle of the Seventh Crusade. . The battle was fought on 8 April 1250, between the Crusaders led by King Louis IX of France (later Saint Louis)[2] and Egyptian forces led by Turanshah of the Ayyubid dynasty.
Following the Crusader's defeat at the Battle of Al Mansurah, Fariskur resulted in the complete defeat of the crusader army and the capture of Louis IX.
1258
The siege of Baghdad
Lasting for 13 days from January 29, 1258 until February 10, 1258. The siege, laid by Ilkhanate Mongol forces and allied troops, involved the investment, capture, and sack of Baghdad, which was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate at that time. The Mongols were under the command of Hulagu Khan, brother of the khagan Möngke Khan, who had intended to further extend his rule into Mesopotamia but not to directly overthrow the Caliphate. Möngke, however, had instructed Hulagu to attack Baghdad if the Caliph Al-Musta'sim refused Mongol demands for his continued submission to the khagan and the payment of tribute in the form of military support for Mongol forces in Persia.
Hulagu began his campaign in Persia against the strongholds of Nizari Ismailis, who lost their stronghold of Alamut. He then marched on Baghdad, demanding that Al-Musta'sim accede to the terms imposed by Möngke on the Abbasids. Although the Abbasids had failed to prepare for the invasion, the Caliph believed that Baghdad could not fall to invading forces and refused to surrender. Hulagu subsequently besieged the city, which surrendered after 12 days.[11]
During the next week, the Mongols sacked Baghdad, committing numerous atrocities; there is debate among historians about the level of destruction of library books and the Abbasids' vast libraries. The Mongols executed Al-Musta'sim and massacred many residents of the city, which was left greatly depopulated. The siege is considered to mark the end of the Islamic Golden Age, during which the caliphs had extended their rule from the Iberian Peninsula to Sindh, and which was also marked by many cultural achievements in diverse fields.[11]
![Hulagu and Queen Doquz Qatun depicted as the new Constantine and Helen in a Syriac bible.[12][13]](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/ff06607a-f0aa-488c-b0b8-f85c8af97220/0681963b-74fe-4973-a8fc-fef8084699e9_rw_1200.jpg?h=63a54437929e7fb1e7b5bb20386df617)
Hulagu and Queen Doquz Qatun depicted as the new Constantine and Helen in a Syriac bible.[12][13]
Hulagu's army besieging the walls of Baghdad
Coin of Hulagu, with the symbol of a hare
Persian painting (14th century) of Hülegü's army besieging a city. Note use of the siege engine
The last of the Abbasid caliphs, al-Mustaʿsim. Folio from a manuscript assembled at the Timurid court of Shah Rukh (r. 1405–1447), Herat early 15th century
Painting of Hulagu Khan on Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, early 14th century.
The funeral of Hulagu (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Hulagu leading his army
Hulagu (left) imprisons Caliph Al-Musta'sim among his treasures to starve him to death. Medieval depiction from Le livre des merveilles, 15th century
1260
The Battle of Ain Jalut
(Arabic: معركة عين جالوت, romanized: Ma'rakat ‘Ayn Jālūt), also spelled Ayn Jalut, was fought between the Bahri Mamluks of Egypt and the Mongol Empire on 3 September 1260 (25 Ramadan 658 AH) in southeastern Galilee in the Jezreel Valley near what is known today as the Spring of Harod (Arabic: عين جالوت, romanized: ‘Ayn Jālūt, lit. 'Spring of Goliath'). The battle marked the height of the extent of Mongol conquests, and was the first time a Mongol advance was permanently beaten back in direct combat on the battlefield.[13][14][15]
Continuing the westward expansion of the Mongol Empire, the armies of Hulagu Khan captured and sacked Baghdad in 1258, along with the Ayyubid capital of Damascus sometime later.[16] Hulagu sent envoys to Cairo demanding Qutuz surrender Egypt, to which Qutuz responded by killing the envoys and displaying their heads on the Bab Zuweila gate of Cairo.[16] Shortly after this, Möngke Khan was slain in battle against the Southern Song. Hulagu returned to Mongolia with the bulk of his army to attend the kurultai in accordance with Mongol customs, leaving approximately 10,000 troops west of the Euphrates under the command of general Kitbuqa.
Learning of these developments, Qutuz quickly advanced his army from Cairo towards Palestine.[17] Kitbuqa sacked Sidon, before turning his army south towards the Spring of Harod to meet Qutuz' forces. Using hit-and-run tactics and a feigned retreat by Mamluk general Baibars, combined with a final flanking maneuver by Qutuz, the Mongol army was pushed in a retreat toward Bisan, after which the Mamluks led a final counterattack, which resulted in the death of several Mongol troops, along with Kitbuqa himself.
The battle has been cited as the first time the Mongols were permanently prevented from expanding their influence,[13] and also incorrectly cited as the first major Mongol defeat.[18] It also marked the first of two defeats the Mongols would face in their attempts to invade Egypt and the Levant, the other being the Battle of Marj al-Saffar in 1303. The earliest known use of the hand cannon in any military conflict is also documented to have taken place in this battle by the Mamluks, who used it to frighten the Mongol armies, according to Arabic military treatises of the 13th and 14th centuries.
Map showing movements of both forces, meeting eventually at Ain Jalut
Bronze bust of Sultan Baibars in Cairo, at the Egyptian National Military Museum
1267
The Battle of Xiangyang
(traditional Chinese: 襄陽之戰; simplified Chinese: 襄阳之战; pinyin: Xiāngyáng zhī zhàn) was a protracted series of battles between the Yuan dynasty and the Southern Song dynasty from 1267 to 1273. The battle was a significant victory for the Yuan dynasty and ended a 30-year defensive campaign waged by the Southern Song dynasty, allowing Yuan forces to advance into the Southern Song heartland. The capture of Xiangyang also allowed the Yuan dynasty to take control of the Han and Yangtze rivers, thereby depriving the Southern Song dynasty of two formidable natural barriers. The defeat devastated the Southern Song dynasty, which collapsed several years later at the Battle of Yamen.
The battle consisted of skirmishes, ground assault, and the siege of the twin fortified cities of Fancheng and Xiangyang in modern-day Hubei, China. Lü Wenhuan, commander-in-chief of the Southern Song dynasty, surrendered to Kublai Khan in 1273. The conventional use of Mongol cavalry was restricted by the woody terrain and numerous military outposts of the Southern Song. Chinese firearms and cannons were employed by the Yuan in the victorious siege of Fancheng after capturing the outposts and relieving Southern Song forces from Sichuan and Yuezhou, which broke through the siege but was eventually defeated. The use of the counterweight trebuchet by the Yuan proved especially effective.
A city under Mongol siege. From the illuminated manuscript of Rashid al-Din's Jami' al-tawarikh. Edinburgh University Library
Illustration of a hinged counterweight trebuchet prepped for transit from the Wujing Zongyao, late Ming (Wanli Period) edition
1270
The Eighth Crusade
was the second Crusade launched by Louis IX of France, this one against the Hafsid dynasty in Tunisia in 1270. It is also known as the Crusade of Louis IX Against Tunis or the Second Crusade of Louis. The Crusade did not see any significant fighting as King Louis died of dysentery shortly after arriving on the shores of Tunisia. The Treaty of Tunis was negotiated between the Crusaders and the Hafsids. No changes in territory occurred, though there were commercial and some political rights granted to the Christians. The Crusaders withdrew back to Europe soon after.
The Departure of Louis IX of France for the Eighth Crusade, Grandes Chroniques de France de Charles V
Eighth Crusade 1270: Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) on his deathbed. (British Library, royal) Chroniques de Saint-Denis
Death of Saint Louis: On 25 August 1270, Saint Louis dies in his tent, ornamented with royal symbols, near Tunis. Illuminated by Jean Fouquet, Grandes Chroniques de France (1455–1460)
Louis's body returning, from a copy of the crusade treatise Directorium ad passagium
Coin of the Hafsids with ornamental Kufic, Bougie, Algeria, 1249–1276.
1271
the last of the Crusades
Lord Edward's crusade,[1] sometimes called the Ninth Crusade,[2] was a military expedition to the Holy Land under the command of Edward, Duke of Gascony (future King Edward I of England) in 1271–1272. It was an extension of the Eighth Crusade and was the last of the Crusades to reach the Holy Land before the fall of Acre in 1291 brought an end to the permanent crusader presence there.
Romantic portrayal of the "Last Crusader". Increasing Muslim victories and Christian defeats led to the end of the Crusades ; based on Karl Immermann's poem "The Return of the Crusader", 1826
