Thousands of years ago, Native Americans gradually left behind the nomadic lifestyle and focused on the domestication and cultivation of crops. Two of the most important crops they cultivated were corn and sweet potatoes, and both came a long way from their Central American origins to become a staple food in North America and later, all over the world. This is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History during 1000 AD.
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Teosinte, the first corn, was discovered and cultivated thousands of years ago in Central Mexico, particularly near the ancient city of Teotihuacan. The plant yielded cobs as tiny as a human thumb. Over the years, Mesoamericans started the selection of breeds that yielded bigger corncobs and more corn kernels. By 900 AD, it had spread to North and South America where the plant adapted to its environment to withstand drought and frost.
For the Native Americans, corn or maize (Zea mays) was more than just staple food as its cultivation was entwined with their myths and religions. For example, the Omaha people “sang” to the corn as the plants grew, and paired them with beans during planting as they considered both plants as holy. The Ancient Puebloans venerated the White Corn Maiden and the Blue Corn Woman (heroines of Native American legends) as important parts of their culture; they also cleaned the storage bins before bringing in the corn they harvested to keep it “happy.
The Pawnees set aside a “holy” breed of corn that they never ate and used only in religious ceremonies, while the Mandan people had their own corn priests. Zuni newborns received corn as a gift, and they were christened with a “corn name” afterward. Additionally, a deceased Zuni person’s heart would be replaced by a corncob before the burial as a symbol of the cycle of life. The Iroquois and other Native American peoples considered corn, squash, and beans as the Three Sisters.
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy adopted corn as a staple crop in the eleventh century and began its large-scale farming. They also converted the Iroquois into adopting the cultivation of corn after another tribe brokered a peace treaty between them in 1142 AD. This resulted in the Iroquois’ acceptance of the matrilineal social structure and peaceful consensus-based political system.
Sweet Potatoes
The Maya of Mexico and pre-Inca cultures of Peru had a long history of cultivating sweet potato. Evidence of this could be found on their ceramics. Sweet potato or camote possibly originated from Yucatan Peninsula-Orinoco River delta, but another location for its origin was the Peru-Ecuador border. It was also grown in Polynesia and New Zealand even before the Europeans reached the Americas after Pacific Islanders sailed to South America in as early as 700 AD.
References:
Picture By John Doebley – http://teosinte.wisc.edu/images.html, CC BY 3.0, Link
Johansen, Bruce E. The Encyclopedia of Native American Economic History. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Johansen, Bruce E. The Native Peoples of North America: A History. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005.
Welbaum, G. E. Vegetable Production and Practices. CABI, 2015.
The word “Viking” was the English name given to a group of fierce warriors whose ships appeared out of the mists of the Atlantic to pillage Western Europe. For the English, the word meant “men who came from Viken (present-day Sweden)”, but for the Franks and other Western Europeans, they were simply known as Danes or Northmen. They started to spill out from their homeland in western Sweden, Denmark, and Norway during the eighth century and proceeded to become raiders and colonizers. The first of these fierce raiders to venture out of their homeland were the Norwegians, and the Danes quickly followed them beyond the sea. This led to Leif Ericson’s explorations around 1000 AD according to the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History.
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The Vikings sailed out of their homelands for several reasons. First was the shortage of land available for farming after the Vikings experienced explosive growth in population. Some men simply sought the wealth of Western Europe, such as precious stones, gold, silver, and coins that came from tribute or plunder. The ransom money exchanged for prominent captives, and the profit from selling slaves in MuslimSpain and North Africa were also important additional sources of income for the Vikings. Many Vikings also willingly sailed away from Scandinavia to prove their reputation as mighty warriors or to show their strength and gain a loyal following of fellow warriors. Others were exiled for one reason or another, and the possibility of going home was simply out of the question.
“Leiv Eiriksson Discovers America by Christian Krohg”
The New “Scourge of God”
Just as Attila and the Huns were considered by the Romans as the God’s brutal punishment for their sins, the Vikings, too, were feared in Britain and Western Europe for their ferocity. Their favorite targets were monasteries on British islands and those constructed near the coast as these were commonly unguarded. Their first raid in England was on the island of Lindisfarne and its monastery in 793 AD. They followed it up with attacks on the abbeys on Jarrow, Iona, the Isle of Skye, and Rathlin.
By 799, groups of Vikings had ventured into the western coast of Europe, and their first victim was the Frankish monastery located near the estuary of Loire river, the St. Philibert on the island of Noirmoutier. Viking attacks were also recorded in southern England during the ninth century. These raids became so severe that both the English and the Franks considered them a very serious threat. Throughout the ninth century, the Vikings conducted lightning raids on coastal areas of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Western Francia. They also tried Iberia, but they were repelled when the caliph of Cordoba built a navy, so they continued on to North Africa.
Resistance
The Vikings were slightly repelled from sailing further into the Seine and Loire when the Franks built bridges on the banks of the two rivers. Deprived of the opportunity to plunder the Franks, the Vikings returned to raiding the English and Irish coasts. This time, they brought a “Great Army” to conquer the land. During the early years, the Vikings usually spent winter on land but went home in spring to tend to their farms in Scandinavia. But this time, the Vikings chose to stay in England and Ireland which was bad news for the locals as it meant that they planned to settle permanently on the islands.
Westward Expansion
The search for additional farmland drove the Norwegian Vikings to sail further west at the same time their compatriots were settling in England. They landed in Iceland in 874 AD followed by the Vikings who had settled in Ireland. They immediately claimed any available farmlands. Sixty or so years later, there were few available lands for the newcomers to claim so they, led by the Norse Viking Eric the Red, sailed further west into Greenland which was where Leif Ericson’s North American saga began.
First Europeans in North America
Rumors of a land west of Greenland first reached Eric the Red and his son Leif Ericson in 985 AD when the wealthy Norse merchant Bjarni Herjolfsson’s ship got lost in the North Atlantic waters. He was on his way from Iceland to Greenland to see his parents, but his ship got trapped in fog and the north wind. When the sun came out again, they saw a forested, mountainous coast, so they requested to explore the land. The captain refused, so they turned back east and landed this time in Greenland where he told stories to other Vikings of his little adventure.
Leif Ericson wanted to see whether the stories about a land further west were true or not, so he bought Bjarni’s ship and asked his father (as well as other Vikings) to accompany him west. Eric the Red was a middle-aged man by then, but he agreed when his son asked him to come for another adventure. Eric the Red, however, was not fated to sail west when his horse threw him off the saddle as they rode to board the ship and was injured. He took it as a sign that he was not meant to leave, so his son, Leif Ericson, took over the expedition.
The Vikings sailed northwest and saw land just as Bjarni Herjolfsson told them. They skirted the coast as they sailed south and Leif named the islands they passed by (Helluland for Baffin Island, Markland for Labrador, and Vinland or Wineland for Nova Scotia after they saw grapevines there). They spent the winter in Vinland. They were amazed at how abundant the salmons were in this new found land. They brought with them timber and wine when they sailed back to Greenland in spring the following year.
The Temporary Immigrants
When Leif’s brother, Thorvald, heard the news that land was available west of Greenland, he immediately launched another expedition to establish a permanent colony in what is now North America. They settled on Leif’s original colony in Vinland and started to partition the land for farms on a place that they thought was uninhabited. Thorvald and his men saw no other settlers during the first year, but the next summer proved fatal for him and his men when they explored the northeastern part of their new territory. The men were on their way back to their boats they came across three hide-covered boats sheltered in a cove. They saw nine men hidden inside the boats and proceeded to kill eight of them except for one who got away. Thorvald and his men fell asleep on the shore, but they were woken up by arrows being shot at them by the inhabitants of the place. Their leader, Thorvald, was pierced in his armpit and died there, but the rest of his men were safe and made it back to their settlement in Vinland. They stayed there until winter, gathered more grapes, and went back to Greenland next winter.
References:
Picture By Public Domain, Link
Haugen, Einar, and Arthur Middleton Reeves. Voyages to Vinland, The First American Saga. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1942.
Helle, Knut, E. I. Kouri, and Jens E. Olesen, eds. The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, Volume 1: Prehistory to 1520. 1st ed. Vol. I. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Horsford, Eben Norton. The Landfall of Leif Erikson, A.D. 1000, and the Site of His Houses in Vineland. Boston: Damrell and Upham, 1892.
In AD 960, a former soldier named Zhao Khuangyin rebelled and declared himself the ruler of the new Northern Song Dynasty. This dynasty’s rule ended 319 years later after the fall of the Southern Song. This chaotic yet prosperous period in China’s history appeared in the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History between AD 960 and 1279.
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In his youth, the first Song emperor Zhao Khuangyin (Taizu of Song) worked as a mounted archer in the service of the military governor Guo Wei of the Later Han Dynasty. He became a prominent palace guard after he helped Guo Wei dissolve the Later Han and create the Later Zhou Dynasty (951-960). When Emperor Guo Wei (Taizu) died, Zhao Kuangyin worked for his successor, the Emperor Shizong. He distinguished himself in the Later Zhou court after he and his troop defeated the combined Liao and Northern Han armies. He was promoted to a military governor in 960 during the reign of the empress dowager of the Later Zhou. However, her unpopularity with the military led the troops to rebel against her rule and declare Zhao Khuangyin as the emperor instead.
The court had no choice but to depose the Empress and proclaim Zhao Khuangyin as Emperor when he reached the Later Zhou capital of Kaifeng. Zhao Khuangyin declared himself the emperor of the new Song Dynasty, and he adopted the name Taizu of Song after he dissolved the Later Zhou Dynasty. He was brilliant on the battlefield, but he had something special that other military leaders lacked: political savvy.
Emperor Taizu strengthened his rule by propagating the belief that his proclamation as the emperor had been prophesied since his childhood. In a bid to curb the power of military commanders, he compelled them to retire in return for the grant of the best lands in the countryside. By doing so, Emperor Taizu removed the threat of rebellions led by the powerful military commanders during his reign. It allowed him to focus on conquering the neighboring states with a reformed military behind him.
“Location of Northern Song dynasty”
The Song Dynasty Under Emperor Taizong
Emperor Taizu conquered three of the weaker states to his south during his reign but failed to take the other three plus the stronger Northern Han kingdom. He died in 976 and the unfinished task of conquering the remaining states fell to his younger brother, Song Taizong, who acceded the throne in 979. The second Song emperor conquered the Northern Han in the same year and showed his shrewdness when he asked the Northern Han ruler to abdicate in return for his safety and the security of his estate. With the collapse of the Northern Han, it was up to the Song and the Khitan Liao Dynasty to master the greater part of China.
The Liao was just as formidable as their southern neighbor, but the Khitan troops routed the Song army led by Taizong in the Battle of the Gaoliang River in 979. The defeat endangered his position as emperor. It did not help that rumors of him poisoning his older brother and usurping the throne from the rightful heir circulated in the imperial court. For many of his subjects, Taizong had lost the Mandate of Heaven. He was perfectly aware of his vulnerability to deposition.
When the emperor returned to Kaifeng, he decided to tie up loose ends and get rid of other claimants to the throne once and for all. Taizong summoned one of the princes to his presence and made it clear that he would not be able to leave the palace alive, so the prince went into another room and killed himself. The other claimants to the throne died over the years. The rumors that he had a hand in their deaths also circulated in the court.
In 986, he launched another campaign against the Liao. However, this second attempt was also a dismal failure. He knew that this second defeat could undo his position. He was able to hold onto the throne when he curbed the powers of the high-ranking military officers and relied heavily on the well-educated bureaucrats in his court who were promoted through the civil service exams. In return for their loyalty, the Emperor rewarded these bureaucrats with promotions and relied on them for the rest of his reign.
The Song’s Unexpected Prosperity
Before his death in 997, Emperor Taizong had named his third son, Zhengzong, as the next emperor of the Song dynasty. This son was elevated to the role of his father’s successor because Taizong felt that he was not a great threat to him. However, his passive nature was not particularly useful for the empire when the Liao conducted devastating raids on China’s northern frontier. By 1005, Zhengzong was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty (Treaty of Chanyuan) which made the Liao not only their equals but turned the Song into a tributary state to the Khitans.
This peace treaty was an embarrassment to Zhengzong and just like his father; it put his position as China’s emperor in danger. The absence of war was strangely beneficial to the Song in the long run, and Zhengzong occupied himself with managing his increasingly prosperous empire. China became wealthier during Zhengzong and his son Renzong’s reign while the money they saved went to infrastructure and education instead of the soldiers’ salaries during wartime. Education was prioritized, and Chinese inventions such as wood block printing made the mass production of books and paper money possible during the golden age of the Song dynasty.
Against the Western Xia Kingdom and the Great Jin Dynasty of the Jurchens
During the tumultuous twilight years of the Tang Dynasty, a group of Tibetan people called the Tanguts wrested the western frontier garrisons from the Tang soldiers and started to carve out a kingdom of their own called the Xi Xia or Western Xia. It flourished as a state during the eleventh century, and by 1038, the Emperor Li Yuanhao of the Western Xia felt that his kingdom had reached equal status to the Song. He wrote to Emperor Renzong and asked for the said recognition, but the emperor only ignored him. Renzong’s own father had bowed down to the “barbarian” Liao many years before. The emperor simply could not handle another humiliation from a people he considered as “barbarians.” The Song emperor’s refusal to acknowledge their equal status pushed the insulted Western Xia king to send his army to invade western China.
His troops carefully chipped away at China’s western territories during a six-year period until Song Renzong was forced to pay Li Yuanhao an annual tribute to get him to stop. The war against the Tanguts forced the Song to recognize that they had been lulled into a false sense of security during the years of peace with the Liao Dynasty. The emperor then decided to reform the Song army from the ground up. One of the best things that came out of this military reform initiated by the Song was the invention of gunpowder. Although it brought them humiliation, the peace that the Song bought from the Western Xia allowed them to train for the next war—this time, with another group of nomads from the north: the Jurchen.
The Jurchens were a Tungusic people that migrated from their homeland somewhere in the present-day region of Manchuria. They became a military threat to the Liao in the early eleventh century after the Wanyan tribe united opposing Jurchen tribes. In the early eleventh century, they started to build a state just like the neighboring Khitan Liao. Aguda (later named Emperor of Taizu of the Great Jin), the ambitious leader of the Wanyan tribe of the Jurchen, craved the recognition of the Song (just like the Western Xia king). He knew that the neighboring Liao was also a force to be reckoned with at that time. To this end, he sent a letter to the Liao emperor demanding to be recognized as his equal and enclosed was an equally outrageous tribute request.
Naturally, the Liao emperor refused to honor either the recognition Aguda wanted or the request for the annual tribute payment to the Jurchen. The rejection angered the Jurchen king, so he sent envoys to the Song emperor Huizong and offered him a military alliance against the Liao. The Jurchen also promised to return the Sixteen Prefectures wrested by the Liao from China back in the tenth century if the Song would agree to this alliance. The inexperienced Song emperor accepted the offer, and together, they attacked the Liao capital of Shangjing, deposed its emperor, and forced thousands of Khitans to flee west. By 1125, the Liao Dynasty had ended, and in its place was the powerful Great Jin Dynasty of the Jurchen people.
Huizong had overestimated the goodwill of the Jurchen. After the conquest of the Liao, they refused to return the Sixteen Prefectures Aguda promised to Huizong when he asked for the Song support. Instead, the Jin dynasty soldiers spilled out of their kingdom and attacked Kaifeng, the Song capital. They were so formidable that Huizong needed to fake a stroke just to escape from his responsibilities as military commander of his empire. The task of facing the Jurchen fell to his son, Qinzong, who had to be strong-armed by palace eunuchs so he would be proclaimed as his father’s successor.
When the Jurchen breached the city, they started to loot, kill, and rape the terrified inhabitants of the Song capital of Kaifeng. They later cornered both emperors in the imperial palace and took them north as captives. Many of the survivors of Kaifeng’s destruction fled south and tried to rebuild their fallen empire in Lin’an (modern Hangzhou). They named it Southern Song, but it did not reach the glory of the former Song Empire which was now in the hands of the Great Jin dynasty of the Jurchen.
References:
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. By China – Song Dynasty – cs.svg: User:Mozzanderivative work: Kanguole – China 11a.jpg: User:LiDaobingChina – Song Dynasty – cs.svg: User:Mozzan, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link 2014. Emperor Huizong. Harvard University Press.
Fairbank, John King, and Merle Goodman. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.
Grousset, Rene. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970.
Mote, Frederick W. Imperial China, 900-1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Ropp, Paul S. China in World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
The Tang Dynasty’s domination of China officially ended in 907 with the death of the puppet Emperor Ai of Tang. The long road to its decline started during the time of the An Lushan rebellion (755-763). The Tang emperors had lost the Mandate of Heaven, but their legitimacy to rule was not the only casualty of the disintegration. China lost its domination of the Central Asian frontier to the Tanguts after the Tang lost many soldiers during the years of war. The troops loyal only to the different military generals increased, which meant that the power in the provinces now shifted to the local governors. The Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms that came later are recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History between 907 – 960 AD.
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The weak central government was unable to curb corruption committed by the government officials. The common people suffered from severe oppression and poverty so that many were forced to resort to banditry. Huang Chao, a former soldier, and trader, turned into a prolific bandit and rebel after the oppression he experienced during the last years of the Tang. He started his career in Guangzhou. The rebellion he launched quickly spread to the other parts of China until his troops captured Chang’an in 881. He was the first and last king of this “kingdom of Qi” as Huang Chao died in 884 and a new Tang Dynasty was reinstated. The reinstatement, however, was short-lived as its last emperor, Ai of Tang, was ousted by the military commander Zhu Wen in 907 AD.
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
The tumultuous period between the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Song Dynasty (960-1279) was called the era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
The Five Dynasties which flourished during this period were:
“Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms”
Later Liang (907-923)
Zhu Wen, the founder of the Later Liang Dynasty, served as a high-ranking officer in Huang Chao’s rebel army during the last years of the Tang dynasty. He rose to prominence when he helped capture the city of Chang’an in 881. He maintained the control of the imperial family thereafter. Zhu Wen installed Ai of Tang as puppet emperor in 905, but removed the young figurehead two years later and declared himself the new emperor of the brand new Later Liang Dynasty.
He established the city of Kaifeng as the Later Liang capital, but he also controlled the main capital Chang’an and the secondary capital Luoyang. The Later Liang held the greater part of northern China except for the territories dominated by other dynasties and kingdoms. Three kings had ruled Later Liang before the dynasty fell apart. It was later overpowered by the Shatuo Turks from the State of Jin, as well as Later Tang in 923.
Later Tang (923-936)
The Later Tang Dynasty was founded by Li Cunxu (Emperor Zhuangzong), and it rose after the dissolution of its rival dynasty, the Later Liang. Its rulers originated from the Shatuo Turks who had a strong alliance with their northern neighbors, the Khitans. Li Cunxu took over the territories once controlled by the collapsed Later Liang dynasty, then established his capital at Luoyang, and extended his rule from the Shanxi region to as far west as Sichuan. The Later Tang Dynasty ended when it was overpowered by the Liao dynasty of the Khitans.
Later Jin (936-947)
Shi Jingtang, the son-in-law of the Later Tang emperor Li Cunxu, rebelled against his father-in-law and declared himself as the emperor of a new dynasty, the Later Jin. Upon the dissolution of the Later Tang, the Later Jin dynasty took over its territories except for the Sichuan region which was ceded to the Kingdom of Later Shu. Its rulers further lost the Sixteen Prefectures it previously held to the powerful Liao dynasty of the Khitans. It was dissolved by the Liao after Shi Jingtang’s successor rebelled against them.
Later Han (947-951)
The Later Han Dynasty was founded by a former military governor of Bingzhou, Liu Zhiyuan, who rebelled against the Later Jin after its dissolution by the Liao dynasty. He took advantage of Later Jin dynasty’s weakness and the Khitans’ succession issues to declare himself emperor of the Later Han. He ruled from the city of Kaifeng and took over the territories of the Later Jin, but the dynasty’s domination was cut short when Liu Zhiyuan’s son and heir, Liu Chengyou, was ousted in 951 by Guo Wei.
Later Zhou (951-960)
The Later Zhou dynasty was established after a successful coup led by the Han Chinese military commander named Guo Wei against the Later Han’s Liu Chengyou. Guo Wei declared himself the emperor of the Later Zhou and proved to be a capable ruler who provided relative stability to his domain. He died in 954 and was succeeded by his adoptive son, Guo Rong, whose promising reign was cut short when he died in 959. The deceased Guo Rong was succeeded by his young son, but the boy was later deposed by the general Zhao Kuangyin (later Emperor Taizu of Song) in a coup d’etat in 960.
The Ten Kingdoms:
Wu (907-937)
The kingdom of Wu rose right after the collapse of the Tang dynasty in 907. It was established by the soldier-turned-governor Yang Xingmi of Luzhou prefecture. Before the fall of the Tang, Emperor Zhongzong appointed Yang Xingmi as the Prince of Wu and refused to recognize Zhu Wen’s legitimacy as emperor of the Later Liang after the removal of the last Tang emperor. Yang Xingmi, however, later declared Wu as an independent kingdom and proclaimed himself as its king. He then ruled from the city of Guangling and controlled parts of present-day provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Hubei. The last king of Wu was deposed by Xu Zhigao, the adopted son of the powerful director of the guard Xu Wen in 937, who then founded the kingdom of Southern Tang.
Wuyue (907-978)
The coastal kingdom of Wuyue was under the control of the powerful Qian family whose members rose to prominence in the military during the last years of the Tang dynasty. It was founded by Qian Liu, the Prince of Yue and Wu, who took advantage of the Tang collapse in 907 to declare himself king of the independent kingdom of Wuyue. He ruled from the coastal city of Hangzhou and controlled present-day Shanghai, Zhejiang, parts of Jiangsu province, and Fujian after the fall of the kingdom of Min. The coastal kingdom of Wuyue benefited from the maritime trade with Korea and Japan. Unlike its neighbors, its citizens enjoyed a measure of stability until it was absorbed by the Song Dynasty in 978.
Min (909-945)
Located south of Wuyue in present-day Fujian province, the less prosperous kingdom of Min rose to become one of China’s Ten Kingdoms in 909. It was founded by the former military officer Wang Shenzi who established the city of Fuzhou as his capital and declared himself the Prince of Min when the Tang dynasty collapsed. Although Fujian is located near the coast, its rugged landscape made it isolated and less prosperous than the neighboring Wuyue. When the kingdom of Southern Tang rose to prominence and threatened its delicate independence, the king of Min had no choice but to seek an alliance its northern neighbor, the kingdom of Wuyue. Both kingdoms, however, were unable to resist the Southern Tang which conquered Min in 945.
Chu (907-951)
The Chu kingdom was founded by Ma Yin, a governor who named himself the Prince of Chu when the Tang Dynasty collapsed. He established the kingdom’s capital in Changsha and controlled the Hunan province as well as parts of Guangxi. Ma Yin’s kingdom was relatively peaceful and prosperous. However, its decline started after his death and the rise of the kingdom of the Southern Tang. The kingdom of Chu was later folded into the Song Dynasty domain in 963.
Southern Han (917-971)
The Southern Han Kingdom was established after Liu Yin, a governor, and military officer, became Prince of Nanping two years after the fall of the Tang Dynasty. He declared himself king in 917 and called his domain the Great Han in 918. The king ruled from Guangzhou and controlled the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, as well as parts of northern Vietnam and the island of Hainan. Just like neighboring kingdoms, it fell to the Song in 971.
Former Shu (907-925)
Wang Jian, the governor of Western Sichuan, declared himself the king of Shu when the Tang collapsed in 907. Its capital was in Chengdu and the Former Shu dominated Sichuan, Chongqing, as well as parts of Shaanxi, Hubei, and Gansu. It was conquered by Later Tang ruler Li Cunxu, but it retained it brief independence for some time after the Later Tang’s collapse and until it was conquered by the Later Shu.
Later Shu (934-965)
One of the many military governors who took power during the Ten Kingdoms period was Meng Zhixiang. He was a Later Tang governor who was assigned to govern the Former Shu Kingdom until he rebelled and founded his own kingdom which he christened Later Shu (a different ruling family from the Former Shu). It had the same capital and territories as the Former Shu, but it fell to the Song in 965.
Jingnan (924-963)
Also known as Nanping, the kingdom of Jingnan was founded by Gao Jixing who was the military governor of Jiangling County. It was established when the Later Liang fell to the Later Tang in 924. Jingnan’s domain was known to be the smallest and the weakest among the Ten Kingdoms. The Song Dynasty acquired it in 963.
Southern Tang (937-975)
Xu Zhigao was the adopted son of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Wu. He declared himself king in 937 and renamed his little domain as the kingdom of Southern Tang. Its later rulers absorbed the kingdom of Min in 945 and added the kingdom of Chu in 951. The Southern Tang became a vassal state of Later Zhou but fell to the Song in 976.
Northern Han (951-979)
Years before the domination of the Song, a man named Liu Min tried to revive the glory days of the Han dynasty by folding in the Later Han territories into his own when the dynasty fell in 971. He established his kingdom’s capital in Taiyuan and the Northern Han ruler controlled the Shanxi region which was wedged between the more powerful Khitan Liao territory and the Song. It later fell to the Song in 979.
References:
Picture By Ian Kiu – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link
Fairbank, John King, and Merle Goldman. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.
Ropp, Paul S. China In World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Tan, Koon San. Dynastic China: An Elementary History. Other Press, 2014.
Chinese scholars were liberated from the time-consuming and tedious task of writing manuscripts with the invention of the woodblock printing (Chinese characters carved on a block of wood) during the dominance of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). Woodblocks were first used in printing patterns on silk, but printing found another medium when paper was invented in China during the first century AD. The high-ranking government official Feng Dao (Feng-to) later played a large part in the widespread use of the movable wood blocks when he proposed the printing of the Nine Confucian classic. This is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History during 900 AD.
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Feng Dao (882-954), formally known as the Prince Wenyi of Ying as well as Feng-To, lived during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960) after the fall of the Tang Dynasty. He became a high-ranking government official and served different dynasties, but eventually found himself serving the Later Tang emperor Minzong (Li Siyuan). In 932, he proposed for the emperor to authorize the printing of the nine Confucian Classics (specifically, Four Books and Five Classics) which included:
“Life and works of Confucius, by Prospero Intorcetta, 1687”
The Four Books
Great Learning
Doctrine of the Mean
Analects
Mencius
The Five Classics
Classic of Poetry
Book of Documents
Book of Rites
I Ching
Spring and Autumn Annals
The emperor approved his request, and the printing (which used the movable wood blocks that were better suited to individual Chinese characters) started in 932 AD. The books were released in 953 AD. These were quickly followed by the printing of three more books (The Annotation of the Classics, Classical Characters, and Jujing Ziyang) using the same method. The use of the movable wood blocks allowed many students easy access to the Confucian classics. All other printing during the Song and Yuan dynasties were later administered by the government.
References:
Picture By Prospero Intorcetta, Philippe Couplet et al. – “Life And Works Of Confucius”, Prospero Intorcetta, et al., 1687, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2523905
Holcombe, Charles. A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Murphey, Rhoads. A History of Asia. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers, 1996.
Yang, Hu, and Yang Xiao. Chinese Publishing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
The Khitan people were nomads who originated from the Xianbei (early Mongolians) and occupied China’s northern frontier before the rise of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). They were part of the Kumo Xi tribe which later split into two groups in 388 AD: the group that retained the Kumo XI name and the Khitan (Ch’i-tan) which appeared in Chinese records in the fourth century AD. This led to the rise of the Khitans and the defeat of the Tatars which is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History after the start of 800 AD.
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During the last years of the Sui Dynasty (581-618), the Khitan people united and invaded the Chinese provinces of Hebei and Shaanxi. They later established good relations with the Tang during the Dynasty’s early years. To control the tribe, the imperial court gave their leader a distinctly Chinese-sounding surname of Li, as well as appointed him the governor of his people who lived in Tang territories. The Li clan rose to prominence within the tribe, as well as the imperial court and many of their own men later served as Tang soldiers and generals.
“Liao dynasty in 1025”
The Gokturks (Tu’chueh), the Khitan people’s powerful Turkic neighbors, rose during the latter part of the eighth century. When they rebelled against the Tang, the Gokturks attacked the rear of the Khitans’ army to prevent them from dominating the steppes just in case they win against Tang China. The Khitans’ ally, the Hsi, also switched sides to the Tang. This caused the group to be defeated and driven out of China.
The Gokturks’ power declined, and Tang China continued to expand its borders. The Khitan people had no choice but to submit to them once again. However, their submission to China did not last long after dissatisfied tribesmen opposed their tribe’s subjugation to China and launched a renewed rebellion. A new Khitan leader named Ketuya emerged during the 720s. He was pushed into the center of the rebellion after he experienced the arrogance of a high-ranking Tang official in the imperial court. He was not one to let the offense pass, so 10 years later Ketuya killed the Khitan king and rebelled against the Tang by submitting to the Gokturks as vassals. Ketuya was killed four years later, but the Tang would never regain complete control of the Khitans.
Power changed hands once again in the succeeding years of the ninth century when the Gokturks while another Turkic group of people, the Uyghur, rose to prominence. With a new powerful neighbor, the Khitans once again submitted themselves as vassals. A renewed Tang-Khitan alliance ended their submission to the Uyghurs. China, by then, had split into different provinces that were ruled by different warlords. The Khitans, meanwhile, took advantage of China’s weakened state to unite their own people. The last years of the Tang saw the rise of the renowned Khitan leader, Abaoji, who would eventually become the first Liao Dynasty Emperor Taizu, one of China’s alien dynasties.
Abaoji was a prominent warrior of the Ila tribe of the Khitan.. He later became the commander of the khagan’s (the Mongolian equivalent of an emperor) personal bodyguard. He then became the chieftain of the Ila in 901 AD and proceeded to attack the neighboring Shiwei, Jurchen, and their former ally, the Hsi. Abaoji was elected as the successor of the deposed Khitan khagan and immediately started the domination of a militarized but divided China. He went on to establish the Liao Dynasty which dominated China for another 200 years. They also subdued the Zubu, a neighboring Tatar tribe, in the 10th century. Emperor Shengzong of Liao quelled a Zubu bid for independence in 983 and finally forced to submit to the Khitan ruler in 1003.
References:
Pictcure By Crop of work done by English Wikipedia user Talessman – File:Asia 1025ad.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18353938
Franke, Herbert, and Denis Twitchett. The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Mote, Frederick W. Imperial China, 900-1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
The most well-known religions for China around 800 AD were Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. They are recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History during that time.
Confucianism
Confucius (Latin for Kongzi/Kongqiu), the founder of Confucianism, was born around 551 BC during the tumultuous years of the Spring and Autumn Period (771-476 BC). He was born to a noble family in Qufu, the capital of the war-torn and poverty-stricken state of Lu (present-day Shandong). He served as a shi (retainer) in various departments in the state of Lu until its fall in 249 BC when it was invaded by the state of Chu. The influence of the shi faded as the wars continued, so Confucius retired from his government post and immersed himself in scholarly work.
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His wisdom was so sought after that he gained many followers as years passed. Five classic Chinese texts were later credited as his work. These include the:
Book of Odes (a collection of poetry)
Book of Documents (another collection of poetry)
Spring and Autumn Annals (chronicles of the state of Lu)
Book of Changes (collection of divination texts and treatises)
Analects (condensed philosophy of Confucius)
“The last days of Buddha teachings.”
In his teachings, Confucius emphasized man’s relationship in society and how he should behave harmoniously within it. He prized nobility in character and emphasized the importance of rituals (such as ancestor worship) in uniting people within a society. For Confucius, respect for others was very important. However, this respect depended on the person’s rank in the family and in the society. Confucianism stressed the importance of filial piety, which was the deepest form of respect especially reserved for emperors, fathers, and older brothers. Filial piety, however, meant that high-ranking persons should act in ways that made them worthy of respect. This ideology only went through an explosive growth after Confucius’ death. It was later adopted as a state cult with the emperor at its head.
Taoism
Lao-tzu (Laozi) was the name of a semi-legendary figure who founded Taoism in the sixth century. His name means ‘old man’ or ‘old master’. Little was known about his early life except that he worked in a Chinese archive before he (just like Confucius) decided that it was time to retire. According to tradition, he traveled west by riding a water buffalo but failed to pay the toll when he reached the city gates. He decided to pay the gatekeeper by dictating the classic Taoist text, the Tao Te Ching (The Classic of the Way and its Power). The gatekeeper accepted his wisdom as payment and allowed him as well as his water buffalo to pass. According to legend, Lao-tzu later became immortal.
Apart from Confucianism, Taoism was one of China’s homegrown religions/philosophies. For the Taoists, the heart of everything is the Tao, an indescribable ‘thing’ from which everything came from (the Mother of All Things). Taoism emphasized passivity, and that a person should live in harmony with the Tao. His masterpiece, the book Tao Te Ching, dealt with death, emptiness, knowledge, and the government.
Buddhism
Siddharta Gautama, the man who would later be known as the Buddha, was born in the city of Lumbini in present-day Nepal in 623 BC. He was born premature, and astrologers prophesied that the boy would either conquer the world in the future or completely reject it. His father wanted Siddharta to conquer the world, so he kept the child inside their palace to protect him from evil. Siddharta grew up in opulence and safety, but in all these, he found no satisfaction, so he left the security of his palace at the age of 29.
Outside his gilded cage, Siddharta saw that people suffered from so many things. He resolved to find a solution to these issues. He renounced all kinds of pleasure by starving himself while meditating for five years. He did not want to stop that and decided to try a middle ground, which he found while sitting and meditating under a bodhi tree. He achieved enlightenment when he discovered the principles of karma or rebirth and man’s release from suffering. Enlightened, he became known as the Buddha. He proceeded to wander in his country where he gained many followers. Buddha did not consider himself a god and neither did he endorse one. For him, the ultimate goal was to be enlightened and to be free from suffering that is caused by unfulfilled desires or by ignorance.
Religion in China
During the dominance of the semi-legendary Xia Dynasty (around 2100-1700 BC), the ancient Chinese practiced divination and veneration of deceased ancestors. They believed in an afterlife, so they buried grave goods that ranged from basic to luxurious with their dead ancestors. The Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) continued the ancestor worship practiced by their predecessors and carried out pyroscapulimancy (the burning of ox shoulder bones for divination).
The concept of ‘heaven’ first appeared in China when the Zhou (1046-256 BC) overthrew the Shang. They used the ‘Mandate of Heaven” to justify the removal of the Shang. The chaotic Spring and Autumn Period (771 to 476 BC) saw the rise of China’s native religions: Confucianism and Taoism. But between the two religions, Confucianism had a larger impact on Chinese society and government. Its teachings were adopted by the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) in their administration. Knowledge of Confucian classics were also used to tests the candidates in civil service exams.
Buddhism arrived in China during the first century AD, but it took another 500 years before it was fully embraced by the Chinese. The Tang (618-906 AD) imperial court and many of the common people adopted Buddhism as their religion. However, its dominance in China would be extinguished in 845 during the time of the Great Persecution under Emperor Wuzong of Tang. Other religions, such as Christianity and Zoroastrianism did not escape the persecution. Buddhism itself would never be dominant in China in the years that followed. Confucianism, however, experienced a revival in 1000 AD.
In 784 AD, the Heavenly Emperor Kammu (781-806) decided to shake off the influence of the powerful Fujiwara family in his court in the city of Nara. So he ordered for a new capital to be built northwest of the old city. The royal palace in his new capital, Nagaoka, was finished in just six months. Kammu Tenno moved there with his family in the same year. But he could not escape the Fujiwara clan as many of his court’s highest officials descended from the clan and the emperor himself was married to a daughter of the Fujiwara family. This later led to the Classical Age of Japanese Literature that was largely influenced by the Chinese as recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History around 800 AD.
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Kammu Tenno remained in Nagaoka for ten years, but his stay there was less than peaceful. As an unsuccessful coup d’etat and deaths hounded his court. The possibility of going back to Nara was out of the question, so he decided it was high time to move to a new capital. He moved the court to the neighboring city of Yamashiro-no-Kuni and renamed in Heian-Kyo or Tranquility and Peace Capital (present-day Kyoto). When Emperor Kammu died in 806 AD, three of his sons ruled and abdicated in succession until the throne passed to his grandson, Ninmyo Tenno, in 833 AD.
“Men during Heian era were taught the Chinese language and writing, but women were taught in Japanese “
Although the royal family still held the crown, the influential Fujiwara family slowly gained ground in the court through their favorite method: marrying off Fujiwara daughters to Japanese emperors. In the middle of the ninth century, the nobleman Fujiwara no Yoshifusa arranged the marriage of his daughter Akirakeiko to Emperor Montoku (whose mother also came from the Fujiwara clan). Montoku died in 858 AD, and the couple’s son, the eight-year-old Seiwa, acceded the throne. The ambitious Fujiwara no Yoshifusa took advantage of this and declared himself as the child’s sessho (regent)—a role which he passed on to his adopted son, Fujiwara no Mototsune when he died in 872 AD. Emperor Seiwa came of age that year too, but Mototsune later forced him to abdicate in favor of Yozie, the emperor’s young son.
The Fujiwara clan continued to dominate the royal court for the next 300 years as Regents. While the emperors remained, they were nothing more than idle symbols of authority. Governance was modeled after Sui and Tang China, wherein ministers and other officials oversaw the administration of bureaus. The Heian Period was considered as the Golden Age of Japan, and the Fujiwara clan became the gatekeepers not only in politics but also in the realm of religion and the arts. The Fujiwara clan itself produced one of Japan’s greatest novelists, Lady Fujiwara Takako or better known by her pen name as Lady Murasaki Shikibu, the writer of the Tale of Genji. Literature, religion, and politics were largely influenced by the Chinese during the early years of the Heian Period. Japan cut ties with China as the years progressed, and politics, as well as other aspects of courtly life, became more Japanese.
The Golden Age, however, only applied to courtly life as poverty caused by high taxes and poor administration was widespread outside the walls of Heian. The Fujiwara clan’s domination of Japanese politics ended in the late twelfth century when their alliance with the Minamoto clan was defeated by the prominent samurai clan of the Taira in the Genpei War (later immortalized in the epic Tale of Heike or Heike Monogatari).
Golden Age of Japanese Literature
Poetry
Characteristics
Choka5-7-5-7-5-7 syllables per line and ends in 5-7-7
Long unrhymed poems of undefined length.
Considered as Japan’s most intricate form of poetry.
TankaFixed 5-7-5-7-7 syllables per line
Short poems with a total of 31 syllables.
The sole form of poetry approved by the Heian court.
The Tang Dynasty was in a state of decline when Japan’s Heian Period was at its height. However, its influence on Japanese politics, arts, and literature was a testament to the dynasty’s greatness. During the early years of the ninth century, many Japanese poets wrote kanshi (Japanese poems that were written in kanji or Chinese characters). While the native Japanese poems called waka (also known as Yamato-uta) were largely forgotten or swept out of public life. Some of the most popular early ninth century poems, particularly the four seasons poetry, were also influenced by the Tang predecessor, the Six Dynasties.The choka form of waka disappeared during the same period, but another form of poetry called the tanka later rose and dominated the Heian court.
During the middle of the ninth century, Chinese influence on poetry had waned, and the native waka made a comeback. Its reappearance was credited to the imperial ladies who held poetry contests or uta uwase within their kokyu (apartments of the imperial consorts); the ladies were also credited with the rise in popularity of the byobu uta or poetry painted on folding screens.
Renowned Heian Period Poets
* Ono no Takamura (802-853) – poems included in the Kokin Wakashu.
* Ariwara no Narihira (825-880) – contributed poems to the Kokin Wakashu and Gosen Wakashu.
* Ki no Tomonori (850-904 – renowned Waka poet and compiler of the Kokin Wakashu.
* Fujiwara no Shunzei (1114-1204) – esteemed waka poet and compiler of the Senzai Wakashu.
Apart from poetry, the Heian Period was also the time when narrative prose rose to prominence and it includes genres such as:
* Poem tale (uta monogatari)
* Literary Diary (nikki bungaku)
* Romance
* Miscellany
* Historical tale
Few of the works of the Heian Period writers survived into the modern times. Those that did expressed the influence of the Chinese in a different way. Men during Heian era were taught the Chinese language and writing, but women were taught in Japanese and had to adapt their writing to the phonetic syllabary called kana (Japanese script based on Chinese writing system). Perhaps no other Japanese writer of the Heian Period was more popular than Lady Murasaki Shikibu, and her main work, The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari). She showed the influence of the Chinese when she wrote it using the kana.
Just like in poetry, the noblewomen were at the forefront of the growth in Japanese narrative prose in the Heian Period. Sei Shonagon, a noblewoman in service of Empress Teishi, was one of the most renowned after she wrote about witty insights on the imperial court and collected them in the classic miscellany, Makura no Soshi (The Pillow Book). Another noble lady who went by the name of ‘Michitsuna’s mother’ wrote the popular memoir, the Kagero nikki (Kagero Diary), which chronicled her life and her relationship with her husband, the courtier Fujiwara no Kaneie.
References:
Picture By User:Emphrase – Own work, APL, Link
Picture By Convert to SVG by OsamaK from Image:Nihongo.png. based on w:Image:Nihongo Bunpou b.200×200.png. – Own work, Public Domain, Link
Department of Asian Art. “Heian Period (794–1185).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/heia/hd_heia.htm (October 2002)
Hall, John Whitney., and Donald H. Shively. The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. II: Heian Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999.
Reichhold, Jane. “A Glossary Of Literary Terms.” AHA Poetry. Accessed September 28, 2016. http://www.ahapoetry.com/whbkglo.htm.
“Writers of the Heian Era.” Women in World History. Accessed September 28, 2016. http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson2/lesson2.php?s=0.
From the ancient up to the modern times, no other metal was prized by humans more than gold. The ease with which it could be molded or hammered into brilliant accessories made it a favorite among the elites. Over time, it was also molded into statues and coins which further increased its value. Although the mining of gold decreased during the Early Medieval Period (between the fifth and tenth century) due to wars and instability, the gold trade across the Sahara flourished because of the expansion of the trade routes in Muslim North Africa. This is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History at 800 AD.
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“Trade routes of the Western Sahara c. 1000–1500. Goldfields are indicated by light brown shading.”
As common as salt may seem to modern people, it was a prized commodity in seventh century Ghana Empire (which encompassed not just Ghana but also present-day Senegal, Mali, and the southern part of Mauritania) where it was exchanged for more-abundant gold. It was especially prized by the Soninke Wangara—the ancient inhabitants of Ghana and the first group of the Sudanese people who had experience in metallurgy—whose land was abundant in gold but produced little salt. The gold was mined from the region of Bambouk (in present-day Mali) and a place called Ghiyaru which was rumored to have the best gold in the empire. Meanwhile, camel or donkey-loads of salt were transported from the Mediterranean coast into various trading posts in the Sahel region of the Sahara. They eventually made their way into the Ghana Empire.
To illustrate the importance of salt in the Ghana Empire, Muslim chroniclers recorded that the king taxed a donkey-load of salt with one gold dinar and additional two gold dinars were needed if the merchants wanted to sell it outside the capital. Gold was so abundant in the empire that it was not taxed when it was sent out from Ghana to other kingdoms for trade. It later became the foundation for the empire’s enormous wealth. The Berber merchants—the main transporters of salt and gold in the Sahara—also brought with them the Muslim religion. Many West Africans eventually converted to Islam as the years progressed. The trade continued to flourish until the thirteenth century when Muslim raiders started to invade the empire.
Basil II (976–1025 as recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History) was the son of the Byzantine Emperor Romanos II and his wife, Theophano. Although Romanos died in 963 AD, he had already proclaimed his five-year-old Basil and his three-year-old brother, Constantine as heirs. Unfortunately, their position as co-emperors was not as secure as Romanos first thought. So their mother, Theophano, offered to marry the brilliant Byzantine general Nikephoros II Phokas to safeguard her sons’ succession.
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Nikephoros II Phokas acceded as emperor and kept his end of the bargain. Theophano later had an affair with his nephew, John Tzimiskes and together, they conspired to remove the general from the throne. The plot ended in the brutal death of Nikephoros Phokas, but to Theophano’s dismay, John Tzimiskes turned on her and sent her to a nunnery while he became the boys’ regent. John died of dysentery in 976 which caused Basil II and his brother Constantine to accede the throne in the same year. The boys succeeded Tzimiskes around the age of eighteen and sixteen. They were first under the regency of their uncle, the eunuch Basil Lekapenos, who served as the boys’ mentor and empire’s temporary administrator.
Temperament
The siblings were poles apart when it came to their personalities. These differences would later shape their destinies. Basil was described as a gruff warrior who forsook pleasures and luxuries to be a capable ruler. His brother and co-emperor, Constantine VIII, became a pleasure-seeker who preferred to live an easy life. The older brother swore off any pleasure to such that it bordered on asceticism. While the younger one embraced it fully and later abandoned the position of the emperor so that Basil ruled the empire alone.
The Bulgar-Slayer
“The Byzantine Empire at the death of Basil II in 1025”
Basil did not have to wait long for his leadership skills to be tested. The Bulgarian rebels demanded that their King Boris II and his brother Romanus be freed from the Byzantine prison after they were captured by John Tzimiskes. The new emperor suspected that the rebel leaders were only using the brothers to unite the Bulgarians against the Byzantines and that their end goal was to claim independence. So he ordered the freedom of the royal brothers and hoped that the Bulgarians would descend into civil war. Boris died when they reached the Bulgarian frontier, but Romanus survived and became a puppet king for one of the rebel leaders, Samuel.
It seemed that the emperor’s strategy backfired as this united the Bulgarians and they started to invade Byzantine cities again. Basil captured Romanus some years later and imprisoned him once again in Constantinople. The unfortunate man had been castrated during his first imprisonment in Constantinople. So Samuel took advantage of this and declared himself as the childless king’s successor. All of this happened while Basil had his hands full of a domestic rebellion led by his former generals and the conflict with the Fatimid Dynasty in the Asian frontier. After he finally got a break from these matters, he focused on building his army to face the Bulgarian threat.
Basil crushed the Bulgars in 1014 AD in the Battle of Kleidion. The Byzantine captured as much as fifteen thousand Bulgar soldiers after the war. The emperor took his revenge by blinding ninety-nine men out of a hundred soldiers. He left the hundredth soldier’s one eye intact, so he could lead the others back to their king. The arrival of his blinded soldiers horrified the Bulgarian King Samuel. This caused him to promptly suffer a heart attack and die. The Bulgarian resistance buckled four years after this, and Bulgaria became a Byzantine domain once again in 1018 AD.
The Rebellion of Bardas Phokas and Bardas Skleros
Basil was beset by troubles throughout his reign, but the rebellion of generals Bardas Phokas and Bardas Skleros hit close to home. Bardas Phokas was the nephew of the murdered emperor Nikephorus II Phokas. When his cousin John Tzimiskes usurped the throne, the younger Phokas led a rebellion against the new Byzantine emperor. He stayed in prison for seven years but was freed by Basil’s uncle and regent Basil Lekapenos to counter the rebellion of another Byzantine general, Bardas Skleros. Bardas Phokas succeeded in suppressing Skleros’ revolt in 978 AD, and for this, he was reinstated and rewarded.
The regent Basil Lekapenos, Bardas Phokas, and Bardas Skleros later came together and led a renewed rebellion against Emperor Basil II after he showed indications of independence from his uncle’s influence. They declared Phokas as leader of this renewed revolt and proclaimed him as the new Byzantine emperor. The battle-hardened Phokas and his troops steadily captured city after city in Asia Minor. They gained so many loyal followers along the way that his troops were able to eventually came close to the gates of Constantinople.
Besieged at all sides, Basil found he had no one to trust in his court. He sent a message to the Kievan Rus king Vladimir (who also happened to be his own brother-in-law) asking for reinforcements. Vladimir sent as much as 6,000 Varangian warriors to help Basil. They met Phokas’ troops in battle in Chrysopolis. The general Phokas, however, fell from his horse after he suffered a stroke. His bewildered troops promptly fled. Phokas had imprisoned Skleros before this, while their accomplice Basil Lekapenos was exiled and died in disgrace. Basil became secretive and suspicious after the double rebellion and refused to send the Varangian warriors back to his brother-in-law. He turned them into his own private bodyguards and started to govern the Byzantine empire with an iron fist.
Against the Fatimid Dynasty
In 995 AD, Basil started a campaign against the Fatimids led by Caliph al-Aziz in Asia. Then he wrested Syria, as well as some parts of Palestine from them. For some reason, he stopped short of Jerusalem. The Fatimid Caliph al-Aziz died some time later, and he was replaced by his son al-Hakim. Basil negotiated a 10-year peace treaty with the Fatimid caliph, and he turned back to Constantinople to prepare for the war against the Bulgars. While Basil was away, al-Hakim proceeded to purge the Christians and Jews out of Egypt and Palestine. According to some historians, he even went as far as razing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and a synagogue in Jerusalem. The Christians and Jews were outraged, and they expected Basil to avenge the purge and the desecration. However, Basil was too busy in the war against Bulgarians. He also could not disregard the 10-year peace treaty he signed with al-Hakim.
Al-Hakim descended into insanity as years passed. Even his fellow Muslims did not escape his cruel laws. News of his madness eventually reached the Abbasids in the east. They condemned him when he ordered his people to replace Allah’s name with his own during Friday prayers. It seemed that Basil and the Abbasids’ intervention were not necessary as he left the city in 1021 AD to meditate in the desert but never returned. Al-Hakim was thirty-six years old at the time of his mysterious disappearance.
Death
Basil died in 1025 AD. However, he never found the time to marry and produce an heir. His brother, Constantine VIII succeeded him and ruled until 1028 AD.
References:
Picture By Nécropotame (French version); Cplakidas (English translation) – Translated and extensively modified from Image:Map_Byzantine_Empire_1025-de.svg, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4078443
Bury, John Bagnell, comp. The Cambridge Medieval History: The Eastern Roman Empire. Edited by J.R. Tanner, C.W. Previte-Orton, and Z.N. Brooke. Vol. IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1923.
Leo. The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century. Translated by Alice-Mary Maffry. Talbot and Denis Sullivan. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2005.
Psellos, Michael. “Chronographia.” Internet History Sourcebook. Accessed September 24, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/psellus-chronographia.asp.
Scylitzes, John. John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811-1057. Translated by John Wortley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
