To Arab historians, the Crusaders were a minor irritant, their invasion of one more barbarian incursion, not nearly as serious a threat as the Mongols were to prove in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.The First Crusade began in 1095 after the Byzantines – threatened by Seljuk power- appealed to Pope Urban II for military aid. Pope Urban, hoping to divert the Christian kings and princes from their struggles with each other, and...
History organised according to the dates of the events. [history_timeline] CE – Common Era [After Jesus (peace be upon him)]AH – After Hijrah [of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him]6th and 7th Century [CE] = 1st Century Hijrah [AH]8th Century [CE] = 2nd Century Hijrah [AH] Chronology of major events in Islamic history This is a short and incomplete list of major events in Islamic history. 545: Birth of Abdullah, the Holy...
Seljuk, also spelled Seljuq, ruling military family of the Oğuz (Ghuzz) Turkic tribes that invaded southwestern Asia in the 11th century and eventually founded an empire that included Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and most of Iran. Their advance marked the beginning of Turkish power in the Middle East. Although individual Turkish generals had already gained considerable, and at times decisive, power in Mesopotamia and Egypt during the tenth...
The most stable of the successor dynasties founded in the ninth and tenth centuries was that of the Fatimids, a branch of Shi’is. The Fatimids won their first success in North Africa, where they established a rival caliphate at Raqqadah near Kairouan and, in 952, embarked on a period of expansion that within a few years took them to Egypt. For a time the Fatimids aspired to be rulers of the whole Islamic world, and their achievements were...
The early ‘Abbasids were also fortunate in the caliber of their caliphs, especially after Harun al-Rashid came to the caliphate in 786. His reign is now the most famous in the annals of the ‘Abbasids – partly because of the fictional role given him in The Thousand and One Nights (portions of which probably date from his reign), but also because his reign and those of his immediate successors marked the high point of the...