Category Archives: Islam History D: Crusades

The Crusade of Nicopolis, 1396

While Timur was taking over Central Asia and India, the Ottoman-ruled zone was also growing. In 1389, Sultan Murad died in the Battle of Kosovo, killed by Serbian knights, but his son Bayezid was on hand. Bayezid had his brother … Continue reading

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Mamluk Game of Thrones, 1290-1330

The Mamluks governed based on competence, in a time when governance was always based on inheritance. They didn’t come up with a framework for peaceful transfers of power or group selection of the leader. Instead, they functioned like a monarchy … Continue reading

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The End of the Templars, 1307

By the end of the 13th century, the Order of Knights of the Temple had received so much property as charitable gifts that they were wealthier than many kings. A large number of their members were involved not in protecting … Continue reading

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The Golden Empire of Mali, 1280

The Almohad dynasty had been ruling in Marrakesh and much of Spanish Andalusia for the last century. It wasn’t materially different from the Almoravids before or the Marinids after it; at this point, West and North Africa had settled into … Continue reading

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Eighth and Ninth Crusades: Return of King Louis, 1270-2

The Mamluk Sultan Baybars had a field day in the Holy Land during the 1260s. War between Venice and Genoa had drawn the remaining Crusader towns into war with each other, exhausting the region one more time. Mamluk forces, which … Continue reading

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Reconquista in Andalusia, 1236-46

The Reconquista moved into final stages when King Ferdinand III of Castile and Toledo inherited the kingdoms of Leon and Galicia, in 1230. He was the wealthiest, most powerful Spanish king yet: he married first a princess from the Hohenstaufen … Continue reading

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The Saint and the Seventh Crusade, 1248-54

Of course, the Pope called a new crusade. But Europe was in bad shape for a Crusade. In the Sixth Crusade, the King of Hungary had led, but now Hungary was in ruins. Europe’s bad boy Frederick II was not … Continue reading

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The Sack of Jerusalem, 1244

When the Mongols invaded the land of Khwarezmia, south of the Aral Sea, they touched off a wave of ferocious refugees who had been the toughest kids on the block—until the Mongols showed them up. So bands of Khwarezmian fighters … Continue reading

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Prince Nevsky and Novgorod’s Battle on Ice, 1242

To the west of Moscow and east of Latvia and Estonia was the Novgorod Republic. Novgorod was ruled by a Prince who was appointed or elected by a strong city council, rather than inheriting the role automatically at birth. The Republic … Continue reading

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The Barons’ Crusade, 1239-41

Historians who later numbered the Crusades did something very odd at this point. Emperor Frederick II’s peaceful negotiation for a ten-year control of Jerusalem was the Sixth Crusade, but when that time ran out and a new army came to … Continue reading

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