Category Archives: Muslim Empire (old series)

The end of the popular Crusade

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Ruth

About five waves of disorganized pilgrims set out to cross Hungary on foot in 1096. In the first wave, they split up as they reached the Danube, some going by boat, some walking to a better ford. Walter Sans-Avoir was … Continue reading →

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Pilgrims to the Holy Land

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Ruth

In the century before the First Crusade, a number of regions had adopted Christianity: Norway, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria. During this same time, an abbey of Benedictine monks at Cluny, in Aquitaine, encouraged many people to go on pilgrimages. The … Continue reading →

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Turkish Syria

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Ruth

Countdown to the First Crusade: In 1055, Seljuk Turks took over governance of Baghdad. The Abbasid Caliphate was utterly gone. Seljuk rulers spoke Persian and sometimes Arabic, and often they used Arabic names like Mohammed. However, the old Arabic titles … Continue reading →

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Rome vs. Eastern Rome: 1054

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Ruth

Countdown to the First Crusade: Church schism By the beginning of the Middle Ages (6th cent.), Christians had a general understanding that all theological disputes should be solved by representatives of the five major Christian regions: Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople … Continue reading →

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Anti-Semitism begins in Europe

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Ruth

Part of the countdown to the First Crusade… Before the year 1000, there’s no clear evidence of anti-Jewish actions. A small community of Jews had settled along the Rhine River in Roman days; there were some other small historic communities … Continue reading →

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Normans on the world stage

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Ruth

  You’ll remember that one of the early steps to pacifying the North was the deal the Franks made with Rollo the Dane to have land in exchange for peace. The Northmen who settled in Normandy were probably warriors who … Continue reading →

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Ideology takes over the Caliphate

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Ruth

I’ve taken a week off writing about medieval Islam, so I want to review before going on. After about 950, the nature of the Muslim world began to change profoundly. Each region had its own type of change. In Persia, … Continue reading →

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Kievan interlude

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Ruth

To take note of today’s news of fiery uprising in Kiev, I’m going to duck to one side of the Islamic developments I’ve been tracking, and instead look at Anne of Kiev, a Queen of France. Anne’s grandmother may have … Continue reading →

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North African Puritans

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Ruth

When the Ismaili Shi’ites were looking for an accepting, protective tribe distant from Baghdad’s central power, they found it in the Kutama tribe of Berbers. With this base, they took over the Mediterranean strip of North Africa, and on across … Continue reading →

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End of Cordoban power

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Ruth

In 976, around the same time that Fatimids were building Cairo, the last powerful descendant of Abd al-Rahman died in Cordoba. He left a 12 year old son, Hisham II, with Hisham’s mother as regent. As so often happened, this … Continue reading →

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