Harun al-Rashid (the Righteous) succeeded as caliph in 786 AD when his father, al-Mahdi, died the year before. During Harun’s reign, the caliph’s court in Baghdad became more Persian because of the influence of the Barmakid family and the Abbasids’ other Persian backers. The Abbasid court adopted Sassanian customs which required all subjects to bow […]
Kat Cendana
Hohokam People Expand Settlements
The Hohokam people started their migration out of Mexico into present-day Arizona in 300 BC. They settled in the northwestern portions of the Sonoran desert, particularly the Salt-Gila River basin. This was an area that received a relatively stable amount of rainfall. Which was enough to support a diverse ecosystem. Archaeologists christened this stage as […]
Baghdad as the Abbasid Capital, The Foundation of
The ancient city of Baghdad is located near the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, near the ancient (and once-great) Mesopotamian cities of Babylon, Kish, and Eshnunna. Baghdad was one of the oldest cities in Mesopotamia, but it was not until the rise of Abbasid caliphate (750-1258) that the city became the center of […]
Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon National Park, New Mexico
The Ancestral Pueblo built some of the most recognizable dwellings in North America which eventually became the hallmark of the American Southwest landscape and cultural heritage. One of the ancient ruins that dot the barren landscape of New Mexico is the Pueblo Bonito complex located in the Chaco Canyon National Park. Pueblo Bonito (or beautiful […]
Maya Power in Mexico Collapses
The Maya of Mexico faded into obscurity during the Post-Classic Period. While they continued to exist as a distinct group of people, they never regained their dominance in the area in the years that followed. The Classic Period brought prosperity to the Maya people and resulted in an explosive population growth, but the same prosperity […]
Pueblo Inhabitants Build Circular Rooms
The houses of the Ancient Pueblo people were some of the most advanced and spectacular among the Native North Americans of the same era. The Ancient Puebloans constantly moved around the Four Corners area during the Archaic Era to hunt and gather food. These ancient nomads were still on the move most of the time […]
Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad
The Umayyad Caliphate was on the brink of collapse during the reign of the caliph Yazid II up to the short-lived rule of Ibrahim. All four caliphs who ruled before Ibrahim died either from illness or violence, while Ibrahim himself was deposed by General Marwan bin Muhammad in 744 AD. Peace remained elusive for caliph […]
Sui Dynasty 581-618
The chaotic Northern and Southern Dynasties abruptly ended when Emperor Xuan of Northern Zhou suffered and died from a stroke at the age of twenty. Yang Jian, the Duke of Sui and Emperor Xuan’s father-in-law, had been an excellent as well as shrewd administrator during the time of the former Northern Zhou emperors. It was […]
Foot Binding Custom
Foot binding was the ancient Chinese practice of breaking, bending, and wrapping a girl’s feet to shrink and control their size. One of the earliest stories associated with foot binding was during the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) when an unnamed emperor became infatuated with a concubine named Daji. This concubine had clubfoot so she asked […]
Daiho Legislation
In 662 AD, Heavenly Sovereign Tenji Tennō ordered the courtier Fujiwara no Kamatari to compile the laws of Japan into a single legal code. The result was the Ōmi code (Ōmi Ritsu-Ryo) which contained twenty-two volumes of code and penal law, but the task was left unfinished by the time of Emperor Tenji’s death in […]