Category: Bible Timeline

The aftershocks of the loss of Jerusalem from Christian hands in 1187 rocked Europe. News of the city’s fall reached the Europeans in 1188. A Third Crusade was launched by European nobles in 1189. This Crusade was initially led by Europe’s three most powerful kings: Henry II of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. King William II of Sicily also joined the Third Crusade and assisted the Crusaders with his navy. The real hero of the Third Crusade was King Richard the Lionheart, the rebellious son of Henry II of England. The Third Crusade which lasted from 1189 up to 1192 ended with no clear winner.  The Third Crusade is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time. It ended with the Treaty of Jaffa which was signed by both Saladin and Richard in 1192.

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Aftershocks

In late 1187, a ship with black sails landed on the shores of Italy. The ship carried the elderly Archbishop Joscius of Tyre who immediately appealed to King William II of Sicily and Pope Gregory VIII for help. He had brought the news that the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt, Saladin, had conquered most of Holy Land. It included the city of Jerusalem which now returned to Muslim hands after many years under Christian rulers.

The news came as a shock to Pope Gregory VIII who immediately issued a papal bull called Audata Tremendi (“We have heard things that make us tremble”). He then sent Archbishop Joscius and Cardinal Henry of Albano to deliver the papal bull to the noblemen of Europe. Count Richard of Poitiers and King William II of Sicily were some of the first to respond to the call of taking back the Holy Land from Muslim hands. Next were Henry II of England and Philip II of France who agreed to set aside their border wars to launch the Third Crusade. The elderly Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa also answered the call and prepared his army to leave for Jerusalem. The three kings agreed to leave for the east on Easter of 1189.

Henry II and Philip II: War Between Kings

But the preparations of 1188 were put on hold because of Henry II’s problems with his son Richard and his long-time enemy, Philip II of France. Richard had sided with Philip II, and insisted to his father that he make him the heir to the throne of England instead of his brother John. The three men negotiated, but it broke down into shouting matches and drawn swords. Nobody was injured, but Henry II fell sick afterwards. Many of his own knights sided with Philip II and Richard, including his heir John. Henry had no choice but to give up and announce Richard as the next king of England. He died in July of 1189, but not before expressing his anger and disappointment toward his sons.

Richard rose to become England’s king in 1189. He was given the title of “Lionheart” because of his bravery in battle. Since his father was dead, it was up to him to continue the preparations for the Crusade. He announced his commitment to the Crusade after his coronation. However, his fundraising methods drained England’s treasury. Philip II and Richard the Lionheart left the coast of France for the Holy Land on mid-August 1190.

The Death of Frederick Barbarossa

The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa left Europe with his German troops in spring of 1189. Hungarian, Bosnian, and Serbian soldiers joined them on the way. When they arrived in Constantinople, the appearance of a large army frightened the Byzantine king Isaac II Angelos. He was afraid that instead of taking back the Holy Land, Frederick Barbarossa might try and conquer the rest of the Byzantine lands. So the Byzantine king sent men to harass the European troops. The attack angered Frederick Barbarossa. He sent some of his men to confront Isaac II Angelos. The Byzantine king had them imprisoned which made the Holy Roman Emperor angrier. Frederick then sent a letter to the Pope and asked for his permission to wage a holy war against Constantinople so he could retaliate.

With the threat of a war he could not afford, Isaac II Angelos finally let the European troops pass into Armenia. When Frederick Barbarossa and his soldiers arrived in Cilician Armenia in 1190, he heard that the king wanted to welcome him. So he went ahead and crossed the shallow waters of the Saleph River. Unfortunately, he fell from his horse and drowned. He probably suffered a fatal heart attack, but this event put his soldiers into chaos. Some of the soldiers went back to Germany while those who continued the march to the Holy Land suffered from sickness and died on the way.

Disaster

Those who did not die continued to Acre to help Guy (Lusignan) of Jerusalem. He was one of the noblemen free by Saladin after the disastrous Battle of Hattin. Guy promised Saladin that he would not attack any of his territories. However, he broke it when the new Crusaders arrived and besieged Acre. The German soldiers who survived death on the way to Acre were not as helpful to Guy in conquering the city. Philip II and his French troops arrived in spring of 1191, but they were not of much help either. Richard the Lionheart was delayed after he was shipwrecked in Cyprus. He arrived in Acre in June of 1191 only after he had conquered the island.

The soldiers who camped outside of Acre rejoiced when they saw Richard and his fleet on the coast. The only one who seemed unhappy was Philip II who became sick during the Third Crusade. The fact that it was Richard who had conquered Cyprus and not Philip did not sit well with him either. The two kings barely talked while Richard was attacking a part of Acre, Philip was inside it negotiating with its leaders. The leaders knew that they would not hold out for much longer, so they sent a message to Saladin that they would surrender the city.

Saladin approved the surrender on the condition that the Crusaders would let the prisoners leave the city unharmed. But for some reason, Richard broke the treaty and killed thousands of prisoners. When Saladin saw this, he immediately ordered his army to prepare for war. But Philip II had already left the Holy Land for France so that Richard was left to lead the Crusader army. Back in Europe, the relationship between the two kings had soured so completely that Philip II dared to ask the Pope the permission to attack Richard’s lands in France. The Pope refused his request, so Philip asked Emperor Henry VI to capture Richard just in case he passed through Germany on his way back to England.

Stalemate and Richard’s Return to Europe

Back in the Holy Land, Richard remained unaware of Philip’s plans against him. He continued the Crusade and led the March of the Crusaders into Jaffa in 1191. Saladin, Richard, and their troops met in battle in the same year. Crusaders defeated Saladin’s army in the Battle of Arsuf. The battles and negotiations continued until the next year while both sides remained strong. Little by little, reports of Philip’s schemes in France reached Richard in the Holy Land, so he decided to wrap up the Third Crusade and return to Europe. He negotiated with Saladin and finally, they reached a truce at Ramla in 1192.

The result was the Treaty of Jaffa which they finalized in September of 1192. The conditions of the treaty included:

1. A three-year peace between the Crusaders and Saladin’s army.

2. The return of captured territories to Saladin. Christian cities and towns on the Mediterranean coast would remain under Crusader rule.

3. Muslims must also allow Christians to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land without fear of harassment from them.

Richard also permitted Guy to rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem. What made this arrangement strange was that it was the Kingdom of Jerusalem in name only. Its capital was in Acre, and it did not even include Jerusalem itself. He also gave Cyprus for Guy to rule, and returned with his men to Europe. He did not receive a hero’s welcome in Europe as the Emperor Henry VI imprisoned Richard when he and his soldiers passed through Germany. Henry VI even asked for a hefty sum of seventy thousand marks of silver so that Richard would be freed. Richard’s mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and other English nobles hastily gathered that amount of money so the king would be freed.

Richard was ransomed and freed in 1194. He immediately attacked Philip and his own brother who sided with the king of France when Richard was in the Holy Land. Philip negotiated for a five-year peace in 1199. Richard died soon after it was finalized – An argument between Richard and a local nobleman turned into a siege after the latter refused to give up treasures he discovered in his own land. Richard and his troops besieged the nobleman’s castle, but the king was struck by an arrow while he was exploring the area. The wound became infected, and he died at the age of 42.

The Second Crusade was launched by European rulers in 1147 after the fall of Edessa to Zengri two years earlier. It is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during 1140 AD. It ended in disaster in 1147, and Edessa stayed in Muslim hands in the years that followed. The Crusades in Europe against the Wendish people and the Muslims of Portugal were successful.

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The Siege of Edessa

On the 28th of November 1144, Zengi, the Turkish atabeg (governor) of Mosul besieged the city of Edessa that was ruled by Joscelin I of Courtenay. The count was busy with the siege of Aleppo at that time, so the people were caught by surprise when Zengi’s troops arrived. The atabeg blocked all the passages into the city, so the people ran out of food. He had many of Edessa’s people killed when he finally entered the city. Those who survived the massacre fled from the city, but many of them were crushed to death when they tried to take refuge in a nearby citadel.

Count Joscelin tried to help his people by asking Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem, for more troops. The queen agreed to help him and sent Elinard of Bures, Philip of Milly (Nablus), and Manasses to Edessa. But they were too late as Edessa fell to Zengi on the 24th of December, 1144.

The Papal Bull

When news of the fall of Edessa reached him in 1145, Pope Eugene III immediately sent a papal bull to the king of France Louis VII. In his letter, he encouraged the king to launch a new Crusade in the Levant and take back the city of Edessa from Zengri. Louis was eager to go to the Levant, but many of his barons did not feel like it was a good idea. So to convince them, he asked Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux to preach a message that endorsed the Crusade. It worked, and many of the noblemen and peasants answered the call to take back Edessa.

Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux also traveled to Germany in 1146 to convince the German emperor Conrad III to join the Crusade. Conrad III and the Germans were easier to convince than the French nobles, and his army marched to Constantinople in May 1147. Meanwhile, King Louis VII, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, Pope Eugene, and their troops followed in June of the same year. Conrad and the German troops arrived in Constantinople four months later, while the French troops led by Louis arrived in October.

But the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos did not really like the presence of the European rulers and soldiers in his city. Roger II of Sicily had attacked Byzantine territories. Manuel was afraid that the European rulers would join Roger instead. He was also afraid of the undisciplined European troops that stayed in his city during winter.

A Disastrous Crusade

By spring of 1148, Conrad’s troops marched from Constantinople into the Levant. Their first mistake was to follow the route the first Crusaders took some years before instead of the route Manuel suggested. On the way south, Conrad divided his soldiers into two teams and allowed the Bishop of Freising to lead the infantrymen into another route. They had not even left Asia Minor when Conrad’s troops were defeated by the Seljuk Turks, while Otto’s soldiers were defeated later on.

The King Louis VII’s army left Constantinople some time later, but they, too, were unlucky. They travelled through the western route to the city of Attalia, many of Louis’ men died after they faced a harsh winter. Seljuk raiders also attacked them on the way south, and Louis (just like Conrad) had to continue with fewer men in the ranks. Louis and his remaining men were forced to travel to Antioch by sea instead of land.

Louis VII and his men arrived in Antioch in March of 1148. The city was ruled by Raymond of Poitiers (who also happened to be Eleanor of Aquitaine’s uncle), and he asked Louis to help him recapture the city of Edessa from Zengi. Although it was the original goal of the Second Crusade, Louis refused to help Raymond. He decided to march his men to Jerusalem instead. He also refused to help Count Raymond of Tripoli beat back the invaders of his tiny domain.

Many Europeans were unhappy with the results of Second Crusade in the Levant when news of the disaster reached them. Most of the blame fell to Bernard of Clairvaux and the pope for encouraging the Crusade. Some people blamed Manuel I Komnenos as they thought that he did not help the Crusaders. Even the success of the Crusade against the Wendish people of Europe and the Reconquista efforts in Portugal were not enough to keep the people from blaming them in their part in the disastrous Second Crusade.

Sundiata Keita was born in 1217. He ruled the Mali Empire between 1235 and 1255. He is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History between 1217 and 1260. Also known as Mali’s Lion Prince, the great warrior was the hero from the epic story of the Old Mali Empire.

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The Empires of West Africa

When the ancient Ghana Empire crumbled in the eleventh century, another empire took its place as the most powerful force in West Africa. The new empire was named Mali. It became wealthy and powerful after it took over the gold mining operations and Saharan trade from the Ghana Empire. Mali was said to be so wealthy that one of its kings owned as much as 10,000 horses. Just like other empires, it soon broke apart after it was attacked by the Berbers. The Muslim Songhai Empire rose after the disappearance of the Mali Empire.

Sundiata: Mali’s Lion Prince

Sundiata Keita was known as Mali’s Lion Prince because he was the empire’s first warrior and king. Modern readers know about Sundiata because he was the hero of the epic that bore his name. An Arab historian named ibn-Khaldun also wrote about him and his adventures. He was known as King Mari-Jata in ibn-Khaldun’s stories.

Sundiata was the son of Maghan Kon Fatta, chief of the Kangaba, by his wife, Sogolon Kedjou. His father was the chief of the Mandinka people (Malinke) who lived along the Sankarani River, and he had two other wives. His father’s other wives looked down on Sundiata’s mother because she was a hunchback and was ugly. Other people also mocked Sundiata because he was born crippled, but one day the young boy was healed through a miracle.

The young man became a popular hunter and a warrior. Soon, his older half-brother, Chief Dankaran Touman, became jealous of Sundiata’s popularity. Dankaran Touman made many attempts on his brother’s life, so Sundiata was forced to flee from their land.

Sundiata arrived in the kingdom of Mema (or Wagadou), and its King Tunkara offered him protection. In return, the young man served Tunkara as a warrior and later rose as an important commander of the army of Mema. Meanwhile, the King Sumanguru of the kingdom of Sosso marched his army and attacked Sundiata’s city of Kangaba. His brother, the Chief Dankaran Touman, was killed by King Sumangaru along with many members of the Kangaba royal family.

One member of their family survived. He immediately sent people to the kingdom of Mema to look for Sundiata. These men convinced Sundiata to come home and help them win against their enemy. The exiled prince agreed to go home, but he knew that he would not be able to defeat Sumanguru since many of their own warriors had died in battle. The king of Mema then gave Sundiata some of his own men to help him take back his homeland. Meanwhile, other warriors of the Mandinka also joined them as they marched near the city.

Sundiata and his troops won many battles against Sumanguru, but the king remained his great enemy for a long time. He finally found Sumanguru’s weakness and defeated him at the Battle at Kirina. The king of Sosso fled to his own country after his defeat. Sundiata and his men took back their own land.

The Mandinka chiefs had sworn their loyalty to Sundiata before, but they renewed their vow of loyalty to him after they won the war. They also agreed and proclaimed him as their new king in 1217. Each chief received a land of his own so that the kingdom became bigger. It soon became a great empire. The new king also ordered the people to build a new capital along the Sankarani River, and they called it Niani.

After the war, Sundiata repaid the king of Mema’s support with great gifts. They also became allies, and Mema became an independent kingdom within the Mali Empire. Sundiata Keita ruled until his death in 1255. He was succeeded by his only son, Uli I of Mali.

Urban II started his reign as pope in 1088 where he is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History. He guided the Roman Catholic Church until his death in 1099. His reign was described as turbulent because of the schemes of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and the presence of Urban’s rival, the antipope Clement III. Pope Urban was also instrumental in rallying the European nobles (mostly French, Norman, Lombard, and German aristocrats) in taking part in the First Crusade between 1095 and 1099.

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Early Life

Pope Urban II was born around 1042 at Châtillon-sur-Marne in the Champagne region near the city of Reims. His devout parents, Eucher and Isabella of Lagery, called their son Odo (or Otho). He descended from a well-to-do aristocratic family. As a boy, he studied under the brilliant Bruno of Cologne (later canonized as a saint) who founded the Carthusian Order of monks. He later entered the Cluny Abbey in 1070 to become a monk. Odo trained as a monk under Abbot Hugh and became friends with the monks of Cluny, especially the novice master Peter Pappacarbone.

In 1076, he was appointed as Grand-Prior by Abbot Hugh and was elevated as chief adviser and Bishop of Ostia by Pope Gregory VII in 1078. During the last three years of Gregory VII in office (1082-1085), Odo served as a papal legate. It was during this time that he was imprisoned by Henry IV in 1083 but released later in 1084. Gregory died in 1085. Desiderius of Monte Cassino was chosen to succeed the deceased pope. Desiderius, however, did not last long in the position as he was deposed shortly and Henry elected Clement III as the new Roman pontiff (considered as an antipope).

Election as Pope and Alliances

Deterred by the presence of Pope Clement III and Henry IV in Rome, a group of bishops unanimously elected Urban as pope in the coastal town of Terracina in 1088. He adopted the name Urban II thereafter. With few troops of his own, the newly elected Pope Urban II knew that he needed to strengthen his alliance with the pragmatic Normans who could supply him with troops that he needed so he could retake Rome. The Normans, however, were divided after the death of Robert Guiscard. So the pope headed south and helped reconcile the Norman lord’s heirs, Bohemond and his brother Roger. Urban enlisted the help of their uncle, the Count Roger. The reconciliation was accomplished one year later.

Urban left Sicily and returned to Rome shortly after he brokered the peace between Bohemond and Roger. He was escorted by Norman troops that would help him assert his rights as pope against Clement III. However, this show of force was not enough, and he had to live (temporarily) on the Pierleoni family estate on the island of Saint Bartholomew on the Tiber river. In 1089, Henry gained the upper hand in his war against the Saxons after the death of their leaders. To counter this, Urban issued a letter of excommunication against the German king. The antipope Clement III convened a synod in Rome in response to Urban’s excommunication of Henry, but his efforts came to nothing as he and his troops were driven out of the city on the 30th of June, 1089.

With the antipope out of Rome, Urban was at last free to rule as a duly elected Pope. However, he still spent the next four years struggling against Henry and Clement III until the German king’s power finally waned and both men were forced to flee north. In 1095, Urban issued an additional condemnation of Henry for his alleged mistreatment of his wife, the Empress Adelaide (Eupraxia of Kiev); the pope also issued the anathematization of simony, clerical marriage, and additional condemnation against the deposed Clement III and the heretical teachings of Berengarius.

The First Crusade

With Rome temporarily quiet, Urban spent the months between 1095 and 1096 touring France where a letter from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Komnenus reached him. The letter contained Alexius’ simple request for additional troops to bolster his depleted army against the overwhelming strength of the Seljuk Turks who, by then, had conquered a great part of Asia Minor. Urban promised religious rewards to anyone who answered the call. It was a hit, especially among the nobles, and some of the first to respond to the call were Robert, Duke of Normandy; Hugh of Vermandois; and Stephen, Count of Blois. Laypeople, ordinary soldiers, and peasants also left Europe to go on a pilgrimage-turned-military adventure in the Levant in what would be called as the First Crusade.

The Fall of Henry and Urban II

By 1097, Henry’s power had completely weakened until he was nothing more than a wandering pariah in Germany. His own son, Conrad, had rebelled against him and turned to Pope Urban II for an alliance. To strengthen their alliance against Henry, Urban arranged for Conrad to marry Count Roger of Sicily’s daughter Maximilla and appointed the count as a papal legate in 1098. He also held a council in Rome between April 24 and 30 in 1099 to promote the First Crusade among the Italian nobles. It was his last council as on July 29, 1099. Pope Urban II died in the Pierleoni family estate. His remains were buried in Saint Peter’s beside the tomb of Pope Hadrian I.

Pope Clement II Suidger was born from an aristocratic Saxon family and the second German to become Pope in 1046 AD. He was the son of Count Konrad of Morsleben and Hornburg by a woman named Amulrad. Little is known about his early life apart from this tidbit of family background. Clement started a life of dedication to the Catholic Church when he served as a chaplain of the archbishop of Hamburg and then as a canon (priest) of Saint Stephen’s at Halberstadt. In 1040, he was confirmed as the Bishop of Bamberg and elected as pope on December 25, 1046, where he is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History.

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He adopted the name Clement II, and the coronation of Henry III, as well as his wife Agnes, was held soon after Clement’s election. One of his first acts as pope was to condemn the practice of selling church offices known as simony in the Council of Rome that was convened in 1047. The punishment was a bit lenient as those who were caught only needed to do penance for forty days. This was the start of reforms that would be carried out by the popes who succeeded Clement II. He also confirmed the privileges of the Fulda monastery, the monastery of Holy Trinity in Vendome, and the Bamberg Cathedral (he kept the bishopric of Bamberg even while he served as pope).

Some months after his election, Clement accompanied Henry III to Southern Italy for an inspection of the emperor’s territories. They were welcomed everywhere they went except for the Duchy of Benevento. They turned back and headed north, but Clement fell ill while granting land to the monastery of Saint Thomas on the 24th of September, 1047. Benedict of Tusculum was rumored to have ordered the poisoning of Clement II, but it was also possible that he died because he contracted malaria (Roman fever). Before his death, he wrote to Henry III (who was, by then, in Germany) and requested for his body to be transported to his homeland in the event of his death. Clement died on the 9th of October, 1047. His body was later buried in the Bamberg Cathedral—the only pope whose remains were interred in Germany.

A mysterious Mesoamerican people called the Toltec rose from their obscure origin to prominence after the fall of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan around 650 AD. It is possible that the Toltecs descended from the Chichimecas, a nomadic Nahua people who came from the north, as well as the Nonoalcas who were remnants of the Teotihuacan population that migrated north when the city fell. These people switched from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one around 650 AD. Tula, the Toltec capital that was also known as Tollan (Palace of the Reeds), was nothing more than a tiny village at that time. The Toltec’s capitol in Tula was overthrown during 1170 according to the Bible Timeline with World History.

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The population of Tula grew as the years passed, and the city was home to around 30,000 inhabitants at its peak. Its influence reached from the southwestern frontier of the present-day United States and into the city of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula. They folded into their empire the neighboring nomadic tribes which added troops to the Toltec military and allowed them to become a Mesoamerican military power during the ninth century. What pushed the Toltecs to conquer the neighboring tribes was their veneration of the Mesoamerican god of war and strife, Tezcatlipoca (Smoking Mirrors), who required periodic human sacrifice to be pacified. Traces of the ruthlessness of the Toltecs were found in the Maya city of Chichen Itza where they erected a tzompantli (skull rack) and the Chac Mool (Toltec reclining figure with hollowed center where the heart of a captive was placed) after they subdued the Maya residents.

After a period of expansion, the Toltecs mysteriously disappeared when they abandoned the magnificent city of Tula. The city itself had declined by the end of the eleventh century, and Toltecs migrated to other areas. Archeological evidence recovered from the site showed that the Toltecs left the city because of a combination of internal strife and external threats. The twelfth century ushered in a drastic climate change that resulted in widespread droughts. The city also showed signs of a violent end, such as fire and destruction, that perhaps contributed to its collapse by 1100 AD. The Toltecs reached a near-mythical status in the years that followed. They were later venerated by the Mixeca or Aztecs as their ancestors.

The Ancestral Pueblo people (Anasazi in Navajo language) were masters of shaping the landscape to make it habitable and the unique houses they built on the Four Corners (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado). Which the most recognizable hallmark of their culture. Their first recorded houses were shallow pit-houses that they built during the Basketmaker II period (1200 BC-500 AD). These later evolved into deep pit-houses during the Basketmaker III (500 AD-750 AD) period. The cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and Canyon de Chelly were developed around 1100 AD according to the Bible Timeline with World History.

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The first Great Houses appeared in the Mesa Verde area and at Chaco Canyon around the Pueblo I period (750-900 AD). The Mesa Verde area was temporarily abandoned during the greater part of 900 AD. It wasn’t repopulated until 1000 AD. The Chaco Canyon area dominated the region during the Pueblo II period (900-1150 AD). However, the arrival of the Pueblo III period (1150-1300) was marked by violence in the Ancestral Pueblo communities. This pushed the people to switch from exposed pit-houses and great houses to carved cliff dwellings.

Mesa Verde

Located on the Colorado side of the Four Corners, the Mesa Verde National Park was home to many of the Ancestral Pueblo’s ancient cliff dwellings. As much as twenty-four cliff dwellings the size of a village (as well as more than 500 houses nestled in alcoves) were carved on the side of the canyons all over the National Park. The largest and most magnificent of these dwellings was the Cliff Palace (built and occupied between 1200 to 1280). Richard Wetherill, a local rancher, discovered this site in 1888 and called the people who used to live there by the Navajo name “Anasazi.”

Chaco Canyon

Hundreds of miles south of the Colorado-New Mexico border lies the ruins of Chaco Canyon and its magnificent cliff dwellings. It was also home to many of the Ancestral Pueblo’s Great Houses and kivas (ceremonial rooms) before it was known for the cliff dwellings. At its peak (between 1075 to 1100), the main area of Chaco Canyon covered up to ten square kilometers and housed up to three thousand people.

Canyon de Chelly

Perhaps the most picturesque of the Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings were the ones located in the Canyon de Chelly near the Arizona border of the Four Corners. The area itself contained more than 2,500 archaeological sites that the Native Americans built between 1500 BC and 1350 AD. The Ancestral Pueblo built their cliff dwellings around 1100 AD but abandoned them around 1300 to be resettled later by the Navajo Indians. The must-see cliff dwellings in the Canyon de Chelly include the White House Ruins, Antelope House, and Mummy Cave.

Inca Origin Myth

The Inca people had as much as forty stories of origin, but two of the most prominent were the Pacariqtambo Legend and the Lake Titicaca Legend. According to the Pacariqtambo Legend, the creator Viracocha and the sun god, Inti decided to create the first man called Manco Capac. He and his siblings were created in three caves in the Tambo Tocco hill in a mythical place called Pacariqtambo. (The rise of the Incas in Peru is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during 1100 AD.)

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Only eight of those original siblings survived—four males and four females—and they were later married off to each other. Those who emerged from the Capac Tocco cave (one of the three caves where they were created) were Ayar Manco and Mama Ocllo; Ayar Auca and Mama Huaco; Ayar Cachi ad Mama Cora; and Ayar Cucho and Mama Rahua . They elected Ayar Manco as king (he received the title Capac or king) and later led the group to find the land of their own.

When they emerged from the cave, Manco Capac carried with him a golden staff which he used to test whether they had reached the land intended for them or not. If it sank in the ground, it meant that the place was where they would settle but if it did not, they had no choice but to continue their journey. He led them from Pacariqtambo northward to the the valley of Cuzco, and there the golden staff sank into the soil. Three of his brothers were later eliminated, while Manco Capac fathered a son by Mama Ocllo named Sinchi Rocha who later became his successor.

The Lake Titicaca myth pointed to the civilization that flourished in the distant Peru-Bolivia border as the Inca’s origin. It tells the creation of Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo by the sun god Inti in an island on the sacred Lake Titicaca. The place where the Wari culture and Tiwanaku culture of Bolivia flourished. Inti commanded the couple to go and civilize the world, so just like in the Pacariqtambo myth, they traveled north until they reached the valley of Cuzco. Manco Capac also carried a golden staff which he used to test the soil along the way to see whether it was the intended place. The golden staff sank into the soil when they reached the valley of Cuzco. They erected the royal palace and the temple of Inti in the same ground where the golden staff sank.

Behind the Myths

The Inca stories of were often dismissed as myths. Other scholars thought that perhaps there was some kernel of truth behind these fantastic stories. Based on the archaeological evidence recovered from the Inca capital, they found that Cuzco was conquered by the Wari in 600 AD. The Wari controlled the valley for around 300 years. When the Wari empire collapsed around 1000 to 1100 AD, the center of power shifted to the nearby Chuki Pukyu site in the Cuzco Valley. The remnants of Wari empire in the Chuki Pukyu were later overthrown when the Inca empire rose to prominence in the fifteenth century.

The valley had long been in the periphery of the Lake Titicaca cultural sphere. Archaeologists uncovered evidence of foreign influence in Chuki Pukyu which were possibly of Wari origin. During the twelfth century, migrants poured into Chuki Pukyu. They brought with them two important evidence of their presence. First was the remains of their ancestors which they transported from their Lake Titicaca homeland and reburied in niches of the temple walls in Chuki Pukyu. Second was the amount of Mollo culture (from northern Bolivia) ceramics recovered in the same area.

Based on the evidence, the reburial of the remains in niches and the presence of Mollo culture ceramics supported the myth that the Inca people came from the Lake Titicaca region. Also, Tambo Tocco refers to “caves” or “windows” in Quechua language of Peru, but the words translate to “niches” in the Aymara language of Bolivia. It may have referred to the niches in which they reburied their ancestors in Chuki Pukyu.

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

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.

Early Life

The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII (Porphyrogenitus) was the son of Leo VI Sophos (the Wise) by his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina. Because of some strange religious rule that only the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos knew, the thrice-widowed Leo and his mistress Zoe were forbidden to marry. The emperor was eager to have a legitimate heir (his previous marriages did not produce any), so he had Zoe moved to the “purple room”—a room with porphyry walls where empresses usually delivered imperial children—before the delivery. He named the infant Constantine after the great Roman leader. Both acts were not-so-subtle attempts to force the imperial court’s assent to his son’s legitimacy (the attempts worked). In addition, the couple defied Nicholas Mystikos several months later when they married with great pomp in Constantinople and deposed the patriarch to get him out of their way. Constantine VII is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during 905 AD.

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Emperor-in-Waiting

Constantine VII ruled from 913 until 959 AD, but he spent many of these years under the shadow of his powerful father-in-law and co-emperor Romanos Lecapenus. Leo died in 912 AD, and Leo’s brother, as well as co-emperor Alexander, acceded to the throne as Constantine was just seven years old. Alexander spent much of his reign fighting the powerful Bulgar Khan Simeon, but he suddenly died of a stroke while he was in the middle of the preparations against the Bulgars. Alexander named his young nephew, Constantine VII, his heir before his death and established a council of regents headed by the deposed Nicholas Mystikos.

Simeon took the moment to invade a number of Byzantine cities, and eventually came knocking at the gates of Constantinople itself. The reinstated Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos had a dilemma as he needed to support a child he denied legitimacy to some years before, but at the same time, he wanted to put up a united front against a common enemy. Nicholas’ solution was to offer the young Constantine in marriage to Simeon’s daughter in order to unite the two empires. He also took a page from Pope Leo III’s playbook and offered to crown Simeon as the Emperor of the Bulgarians which would elevate him as Constantine’s equal.

His plan outraged Zoe, so she had the patriarch removed from the palace and took up the regency for her son. Zoe also had the peace treaty Nicholas made with Simeon canceled, but this turned out to be a fatal mistake as the Bulgar Khan soon attacked Byzantines cities after his humiliation. In 917, Zoe assigned the general Leo Phokas (also rumored to be her lover) as commander of the troops who would go up against the Bulgars in a battlefield called the Plain of Diabasis. The Byzantine soldiers led by Leo Phokas were soundly defeated in this battle. Reinforcements from the naval commander Romanos Lecapenus did not arrive after news of the Byzantine defeat reached him while his fleet was at the Black Sea. Leo Phokas barely made it out of the battle alive. He attempted to fight the Bulgars again near Constantinople but the second fight ended in another disaster that virtually ended his career.

Leo Phokas’ failure did not bode well for him or the Empress, and when Romanos Lecapenus reached Constantinople, he ordered both to be banished from the palace. He, however, allowed the young Constantine to stay on as emperor and announced himself as the boy’s regent. Phokas retired to Chrysopolis in 919 AD, while the disgraced Zoe entered a nunnery. Romanos Lecapenus also took advantage of the situation to further legitimize his rule and arranged the marriage of Constantine VII to his daughter Elena. The persistent Nicholas Mystikos saw this as an opportunity to make another comeback, so he crowned Romanos as Constantine’s co-emperor. Romanos held the reins of power even after Constantine came of age, and even appointed his two sons and another grandson as co-emperors.

Constantine grew up in the shadow of the Lecapenus family for so long that he turned out to be an amiable but passive man. This was tempered by his wife’s ambitious personality. In 944, her brothers got tired of waiting for their 74-year-old father Romanos Lecapenus to die, so they arranged for him to be kidnapped and shipped off to a monastery where he died three years later. But there was another person who was also tired of waiting: Elena, Constantine’s wife. When her brothers came back to the city, she invited them to dinner but had them arrested as they sat down to eat. She had them shipped off to a far off monastery on an island. With the path to the throne now clear for her husband, Constantine VII started his solo rule.

Constantine was known as an intellectual who wrote several books about administration during his reign. Perhaps his temperament was better suited for a scholarly life as he had no major military accomplishments during his solo reign. One of the most significant events that happened during his reign was the conversion of the Kievan Rus warrior-queen Olga to Christianity during her state visit to Constantinople. She was later acclaimed as a saint and worked to spread Christianity among the Rus tribes.

Constantine VII was succeeded by his son Romanos II when he died on November 9, 959 AD.