Background The rise of the Mayors of the Palace pushed the do-nothing (Roi fainéant) Merovingian kings out of the power arena. And according to Charlemagne’s historian Einhard, the last Merovingian king Childeric III was a little more than a peasant by the end of his reign. Childeric’s standard of living had fallen so low that […]
Kat Cendana
Toltec People Invade Chichen Itza
Perhaps the Toltec people arrived in Tula peacefully. However, the same could not be said of their departure from the city after less than a century nor of their arrival in the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza around the end of the 10th century AD which is where it is recorded on the Bible […]
Schism (Three Popes Claim Vicarship of God), The Great Western
The Great Western Schism (1378-1417) was the period when three different men all claimed to be the rightful pope. During the early years of the schism, only rival popes existed. The first one, Pope Urban VI, lived in Rome, while the second pope, Clement VII, lived in Avignon. It was not until 1409 that a […]
Fatimid Domain, Addition of Egypt and Syria to
The Fatimid Dynasty of Maghreb in North Africa rose to prominence during the waning years of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad. The name Fatimid came from Muhammad’s favorite daughter, Fatima. The Fatimids were members of the militant Ismaili faction of Shi’a sect who believed that the true and rightful imams should descend only from Ismail […]
Caliphate Becomes Only a Clerical Head, The
The long and slow decline of the Abbasid caliphate based in the city of Baghdad started right after the death of Harun al-Rashid and the succession of his sons. The civil war between his sons ended with Harun’s appointed successor, al-Amin, dead by 813 AD at the hands of his brother, al-Mamun. Large chunks of […]
Huari Empire Fades in Peru
The Huari (also spelled as Wari) Empire rose to prominence around 600 AD, during what historians of Peru’s Pre-Columbian civilizations call the Middle Horizon Period (600-1000 AD). The Huari were the cultural heirs of the Tiwanaku of Bolivia, and the Inca consider and revere them as their ancestors. These ancient Peruvians founded a city in […]
Abbasid Dynasty: Architecture and Science Flourish
The collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate ushered in the golden age of the Abbasid Dynasty. This era produced greater advancements in arts, science, and architecture. Damascus was the political, commercial, and cultural center of the Umayyad Dynasty. However, when the Umayyad family was ousted from power and the Abbasids rose to prominence, the center of […]
Toltec People Build their Capital at Tula, Mexico
Background The origin of the Toltec people is still shrouded in mystery, but archaeological records show that they first appeared around the time when the Maya civilization in Mexico had collapsed between 800 and 900/1100 AD. These mysterious people spoke an Uto-Aztecan language called Nahuatl. They were probably the descendants of the Chichimecas. A nomadic […]
Maya Civilization in Southern Mexico Collapses
The Maya civilization in Southern Mexico centered around the present-day states of Campeche, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, and Chiapas. The Preclassic and Classic Periods marked the Maya civilization’s golden age in Southern Mexico when cities such as Calakmul and Palenque rose to prominence. Towns and villages that surrounded these major urban areas increased to accommodate the […]
Mathematics, Philosophy, and Geometry in Use
The reign of the Abbasid caliphs (although far from peaceful) was considered to be Islam’s golden age with its great advancement in science, mathematics, philosophy, and literature. The openness, flexibility, and economic stability that brought about these advancements were a sharp contrast to the stagnation of Europe’s Medieval Period. The use of mathematics, philosophy, and […]