A.D.
704.
Recovery of the throne by the Eastern Emperor Justinian II.
705.
Accession of the Caliph Welid.
709.
Accession of Roderick to the Gothic throne in Spain.
711.
Invasion of Spain by the Arab-Moors.
Moslem conquest of Transoxiana and Sardinia.
Final fall and death of the Eastern Emperor Justinian II.
712.
Surrender of Toledo to the Moslem invaders of Spain.
717.
Elevation of Leo the Isaurian to the throne of the Eastern Empire.
Second siege of Constantinople by the Moslems.
Great defeat of the Moslems at the Cave of Covadonga in Spain.
718.
Victory of Charles Martel at Soissons;
his authority acknowledged in both Frankish kingdoms.
719.
Mahometan conquest and occupation of Narbonne.
721.
Siege of Toulouse;
defeat of the Moslems.
725.
Mahometan conquests in Septimania.
726.
Iconoclastic edicts of Leo the Isaurian;
tumult and insurrection in Constantinople.
731.
Death of Pope Gregory II.;
election of Gregory III.;
last confirmation of a Papal election by the Eastern Emperor.
732.
Great defeat of the Moslems by the Franks
under Charles Martel at Poitiers, or Tours.
Council held at Rome by Pope Gregory III.;
edict against the Iconoclasts.
733.
Practical termination of Byzantine imperial authority.
735.
Birth of Alcuin (died 804).
740.
Death of Leo the Isaurian, Emperor in the East;
accession of Constantine V.
741.
Death of Charles Martel.
Death of Pope Gregory III.;
election of Zacharias.
742.
Birth of Charlemagne (died 814).
744.
Defeat of the Saxons by Carloman;
their forced baptism.
Death of Liutprand, king of the Lombards.
747.
The Plague in Constantinople.
Pippin the Short made Mayor in both kingdoms of the Franks.
750.
Fall of the Omeyyad dynasty of caliphs and rise of the Abbassides.
751.
Extinction of the Exarchate of Ravenna by the Lombards.
752.
End of the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings;
assumption of the crown by Pippin the Short.
Death of Pope Zacharias;
election of Stephen II.
754.
First invasion of Italy by Pippin the Short.
Rome assailed by the Lombards.
755.
Subjugation of the Lombards by Pippin;
his donation of temporalities to the Pope.
Martyrdom of Saint Boniface in Germany.
756.
Founding of the caliphate of Cordova by Abderrahman.
757.
Death of Pope Stephen II.;
election of Paul I.
758.
Accession of Offa, king of Mercia.
759.
Loss of Narbonne, the last foothold of the
Mahometans north of the Pyrenees.
763.
Founding of the capital of the Eastern Caliphs at Bagdad.
[Uncertain date.]
767.
Death of Pope Paul I.;
usurpation of the anti-pope, Constantine.
768.
Conquest of Aquitaine by Pippin the Short.
Death of Pippin;
accession of Charlemagne and Carloman.
Deposition of the anti-pope Constantine;
election of Pope Stephen III.
771.
Death of Carloman, leaving Charlemagne sole king of the Franks.
772.
Charlemagne's first wars with the Saxons.
Death of Pope Stephen III.;
election of Hadrian I.
774.
Charlemagne's acquisition of the Lombard kingdom;
his enlargement of the donation of temporalities to the Pope.
Forgery of the "Donation of Constantine." [Uncertain date.]
775.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Constantine V.;
accession of Leo IV.
778.
Charlemagne's invasion of Spain;
the "dolorous rout" of Roncesvalles.
780.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Leo IV.;
accession of Constantine VI.;
regency of Irene.
781.
Italy and Aquitaine formed into separate kingdoms by Charlemagne.
785.
Great struggle of the Saxons against Charlemagne;
submission of Wittikind.
786.
Accession of Haroun al Raschid in the eastern caliphate.
787.
Seventh General Council of the Church (Second Council of Nicæa).
First incursions of the Danes in England.
788.
Subjugation of the Bavarians by Charlemagne.
Death of Abderrahman.
790.
Composition of the Caroline books. [Uncertain date.]
791.
Charlemagne's first campaign against the Avars.
794.
Accession of Cenwulf, king of Mercia.
795.
Death of Pope Hadrian I.;
election of Leo III.
797.
Deposition and blinding of the Eastern Emperor
Constantine VI., by his mother Irene.
800.
Imperial coronation of Charlemagne;
revival of the Empire.
Accession of Ecgberht, king of Wessex,
the first king of all the English.
-------------------------------------
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-732.
The repulse from Gaul.
"The deeds of Musa [in Africa and Spain] had been performed
'in the evening of his life,' but, to borrow the words of
Gibbon, 'his breast was still fired with the ardor of youth,
and the possession of Spain was considered as only the first
step to the monarchy of Europe. With a powerful armament by
sea and land, he was preparing to pass the Pyrenees, to
extinguish in Gaul the declining kingdoms of the Franks and
Lombards, and to preach the unity of God on the altar of the
Vatican. Thence, subduing the barbarians of Germany, he
proposed to follow the course of the Danube from its source to
the Euxine Sea, to overthrow the Greek or Roman empire of
Constantinople, and, returning from Europe to Asia, to unite
his new acquisitions with Antioch and the provinces of Syria.'
This vast enterprise … was freely revolved by the successors
of Musa. In pursuance of it, El Haur, the new lieutenant of
the califs, assailed the fugitive Goths in their retreats in
Septimania (715-718). El Zamah, who succeeded him, crossed the
mountains, and, seizing Narbonne, expelled the inhabitants and
settled there a colony of Saracens (719). The following year
they passed the Rhone, in order to extend their dominion over
Provence, but, repelled by the dukes and the militia of the
country, turned their forces toward Toulouse (721). Eudo, Duke
of Aquitain, bravely defending his capital, brought on a
decisive combat. … El Zamah fell. The carnage among his
retreating men then became so great that the Arabs named the
passage from Toulouse to Carcassone the Road of Martyrs (Balat
al Chouda). Supporting their terrible reverses with the
characteristic resignation of their race and faith, the Arabs
were still able to retain a hold of Narbonne and of other
fortresses of the south, and, after a respite of four years,
spent in recruiting their troops from Spain and Africa, to
resume their projects of invasion and pillage in Gaul (725).
Under the Wali Anbessa, they ascended the Rhone as far as the
city of Lyons, devastating the towns and the fields. … When,
… at the close of his expeditions, Anbessa perished by the
hands of the Infidels, all the fanaticism of the Mussulman
heart was aroused into an eager desire for revenge. His
successor, Abd-el-Rahman, a tried and experienced general,
energetic and heroic as he was just and prudent, … entered
into elaborate preparations for the final conquest of Gaul.
For two years the ports of Syria, Egypt, and Africa swarmed
with departing soldiery, and Spain resounded with the calls
and cries to arms (727-729)." The storm broke first on
Aquitaine, and its valiant Duke Eudes, or Eudo, rashly meeting
the enemy in the open field, in front of Bordeaux, suffered an
irretrievable defeat (May, 731). Bordeaux was stormed and
sacked, and all Aquitaine was given up to the ravages of the
unsparing Moslem host. Eudes fled, a helpless fugitive, to his
enemies the Franks, and besought the aid of the great
palace-mayor, Karl Martel, practical sovereign of the Frankish
kingdoms, and father of the Pippin who would soon become king
in name as well as in fact. But, not for Aquitaine, only, but
for all Gaul, all Germany,—all Christendom in Europe,—Karl
and his Franks were called on to rally and do battle against
the sons of the desert, whose fateful march of conquest seemed
never to end. "'During all the rest of the summer, the Roman
clarions and the German horns sounded and groaned through all
the cities of Neustria and Austrasia, through the rustic
palaces of the Frankish leudes, and in the woody gaus of
western Germany.' … Meanwhile, Abel-el-Rahman, laden with
plunder and satiated with blood, had bent his steps toward the
southwest, where he concentrated his troops on the banks of
the Charente. Enriched and victorious as he was, there was
still an object in Gaul which provoked alike the cupidity and
the zeal of his followers. This was the Basilica of St. Martin
of Tours, the shrine of the Gallic Christians, where the
richest treasures of the Church were collected, and in which
the profoundest veneration of its members centred. He yearned
for the pillage and the overthrow of this illustrious
sanctuary, and, taking the road from Poitiers, he encountered
the giants of the North in the same valley of the Vienne and
Clain where, nearly three hundred years before, the Franks and
the Wisigoths had disputed the supremacy of Gaul. There, on
those autumn fields, the Koran and the Bible—Islamism and
Christianity—Asia and Europe—stood face to face, ready to
grapple in a deadly and decisive conflict. …
{2075}
Trivial skirmishes from time to time kept alive the ardor of
both hosts, till at length, at dawn on Saturday, the 11th of
October [A. D. 732], the signal for a general onset was given.
With one loud shout of Allah-Akbar (God is great), the Arab
horsemen charged like a tempest upon their foe, but the deep
columns of the Franks did not bend before the blast. 'Like a
wall of iron,' says the chronicler, 'like a rampart of ice,
the men of the North stood unmoved by the frightful shock.'
All day long the charges were renewed." Still the stout Franks
held their ground, and still the indomitable warriors of Islam
pressed upon them, until late in the afternoon, when the
latter were thrown into confusion by an attack on their rear.
Then Karl and his men charged on them and their lines were
broken—their rout was bloody and complete. When night put an
end to the slaughter, the Franks slept upon their arms,
expecting that the dreaded Saracens would rally and resume the
fight. But they vanished in the darkness. Their leader, the
brave Abd-el-Rahman had fallen in the wild melée and no
courage was left in their hearts. Abandoning everything but
their horses and their arms, they fled to Narbonne. "Europe
was rescued, Christianity triumphant, Karl the hero forever of
Christian civilization."
_P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
chapter 14._
The booty found by the Franks in the Moslem camp "was
enormous; hard-money, ingots of the precious metals, melted
from jewels and shrines; precious vases, rich stuffs,
subsistence stores, flocks and herds gathered and parked in
the camp. Most of this booty had been taken by the Moslemah
from the Aquitanians, who now had the sorrow of seeing it
greedily divided among the Franks."
_H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the! Arab-Moors,
book 6, chapter 1 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_E. S. Creasy,
Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World,
chapter 7._
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-750.
Omeyyads and Abbassides.
The dividing of the Caliphate.
The tragic death of Hosein and his companions at Kerbela
kindled a passion which time would not extinguish in the
hearts of one great party among the Moslems. The first
ambitious leader to take advantage of the excitement of it, as
a means of overthrowing the Omeyyads, was Abdallah ibn Zobeir,
who, posing first as the "Protector of the Holy House" of Ali,
soon proclaimed himself Caliph and maintained for thirteen
years a rival court at Mecca. In the war which raged during a
great part of those years, Medina was taken by storm and given
over to pillage, while the holy city of Mecca withstood a
siege of forty days, during which the sacred Caaba was
destroyed. Zobeir fell, at last, in a final battle fought
under the walls of Mecca. Meantime, several changes in the
caliphate at Damascus had taken place and the throne was soon
afterwards [A. D. 705] occupied by the Caliph Welid, whose
reign proved more glorious than that of any other prince of
his house. "Elements of disorder still remained, but under the
wise and firm sceptre of Welid they were held in check. The
arts of peace prevailed; schools were founded, learning
cultivated, and poets royally rewarded; public works of every
useful kind were promoted, and even hospitals established for
the aged, lame, and blind. Such, indeed, at this era, was the
glory of the court of Damascus that Weild, of all the Caliphs
both before and after, gives the precedence to Welid. It is
the fashion for the Arabian historians to abuse the Omeyyads
as a dissolute, intemperate, and godless race; but we must not
forget that these all wrote more or less under Abbasside
inspiration. … After Welid, the Omeyyad dynasty lasted
six-and-thirty years. But it began to rest on a precarious
basis. For now the agents of the house of Hashim, descendants
of the Prophet and of his uncle Abbas, commenced to ply
secretly, but with vigour and persistency, their task of
canvass and intrigue in distant cities, and especially in the
provinces of the East. For a long time, the endeavour of these
agitators was directed to the advocacy of the Shiya right;
that is to say, it was based upon the Divine claim of Aly, and
his descendants in the Prophet's line, to the Imamate or
leadership over the empire of Islam. … The discomfiture of
the Shiyas paved the way for the designing advocates of the
other Hashimite branch, namely, that of the house of Abbas,
the uncle of the Prophet. These had all along been plotting in
the background, and watching their opportunity. They now
vaunted the claims of this line, and were barefaced enough to
urge that, being descended from the uncle of Mahomet through
male representatives, they took precedence over the direct
descendants of the Prophet himself, because these came through
Fatima in the female line. About the year 130 of the Hegira,
Abul Abbas, of Abasside descent, was put forward in Persia, as
the candidate of this party, and his claim was supported by
the famous general Abu Muslim. Successful in the East, Abu
Muslim turned his arms to the West. A great battle, one of
those which decide the fate of empires, was fought on the
banks of the Zab [A. D. 750]; and, through the defection of
certain Kharejite and Yemen levies, was lost by the Omeyyad
army. Merwan II., the last of his dynasty, was driven to
Egypt, and there killed in the church of Bussir, whither he
had fled for refuge. At the close of the year 132 [August 5,
A. D. 750], the black flag, emblem of the Abbassides, floated
over the battlements of Damascus. The Omeyyad dynasty, after
ruling the vast Moslem empire for a century, now disappeared
in cruelty and bloodshed. … So perished the royal house of
the Omeyyads. But one escaped. He fled to Spain, which had
never favoured the overweening pretensions of the Prophet's
family, whether in the line of Aly or Abbas. Accepted by the
Arab tribes, whose influence in the West was paramount, Abd al
Rahman now laid the foundation of a new Dynasty and
perpetuated the Omeyyad name at the magnificent court of
Cordova. … Thus, with the rise of the Abbassides, the unity
of the Caliphate came to an end. Never after, either in theory
or in fact, was there a successor to the Prophet, acknowledged
as such over all Islam. Other provinces followed in the wake
of Spain. The Aghlabite dynasty in the east of Africa, and,
west of it, the Edrisites in Fez, both of Alyite descent;
Egypt and Sicily under independent rulers; the Tahirite kings
in Persia, their native soil; these and others, breaking away
from the central government, established kingdoms of their
own. The name of Caliph, however it might survive in the
Abbasside lineage, or be assumed by less legitimate
pretenders, had now altogether lost its virtue and
significance."
_Sir W. Muir,
Annals of the Early Caliphate,
chapter 50._
ALSO IN:
_S. Lane-Poole,
The Mohammadan Dynasties,
pages 12-14._
_R. D. Osborn,
Islam Under the Arabs,
part 3._
{2076}
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 717-718.
Second repulse from Constantinople.
See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 717-718.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 752-759.
Final expulsion from southern Gaul.
During the year of his coronation (A. D. 752) Pippin, or Pepin
the Short—the first of the Carolingians to assume the
Frankish crown—having taken measures to reduce Aquitaine to
obedience, was diverted, on his march towards that country,
into Septimania. The discord prevailing among the Moslems, who
had occupied this region of Gaul for more than thirty years,
"opened the prospect of an easy conquest. With little
fighting, and through the treachery of a Goth named Ansemond,
who commanded at Beziers, Agde, Maguelonne, and Nismes, under
an Arabian wali, he was enabled to seize those strong-holds,
and to leave a part of his troops to besiege Narbonne, as the
first step toward future success." Then Pippin was called away
by war with the Saxons and in Brittany, and was occupied with
other cares and conflicts, until A. D. 759, when he took up
and finished the task of expelling the Saracens from Gaul.
"His troops left in occupation of Septimania (752) had
steadily prosecuted the siege of Narbonne. … Not till after
a blockade of seven years was the city surrendered, and then
through the treason of the Christians and Goths who were
inside the walls, and made secret terms with the beleaguers.
They rose upon the Arabs, cut them in pieces, and opened the
gates to the Franks. A reduction of Elne, Caucoliberis, and
Carcassone followed hard upon that of Narbonne. … In a
little while the entire Arab population was driven out of
Septimania, after an occupation of forty years; and a large
and important province (equivalent nearly to the whole of
Languedoc), held during the time of the Merovingians by the
Wisigoths, was secured to the possession of the Franks. The
Arabs, however, though expelled, left many traces of their
long residence on the manners and customs of Southern Gaul."
_P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
chapter 15._
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 756-1031.
The Omeyyad caliphs of Cordova.
When the struggle of the house of Abbas with the house of
Omeyya, for the throne of the caliphate at Damascus, was ended
by the overthrow of the Omeyyads (A. D. 750), the wretched
members of the fallen family were hunted down with unsparing
ferocity. "A single youth of the doomed race escaped from
destruction. After a long series of romantic adventures, he
found his way into Spain [A. D. 756]; he there found
partizans, by whose aid he was enabled to establish himself as
sovereign of the country, and to resist all the attempts of
the Abbassides to regain, or rather to obtain, possession of
the distant province. From this Abderrahman [or Abdalrahman]
the Ommiad proceeded the line of Emirs and Caliphs of Cordova,
who reigned in splendour in the West for three centuries after
their house had been exterminated in their original
possessions. … When the Ommiad Abdalrahman escaped into
Spain … the peninsula was in a very disordered state. The
authority of the Caliphs of the East was nearly nominal, and
governors rose and fell with very little reference to their
distant sovereign. … The elevation of Abdalrahman may have
been the result, not so much of any blind preference of
Ommiads to Abbassides, as of a conviction that nature designed
the Iberian peninsula to form an independent state. But at
that early period of Mahometan history an independent
Mahometan state could hardly be founded, except under the
guise of a rival Caliphate. … And undoubtedly nothing is
more certain than that the Ommiads of Cordova were in every
sense a rival dynasty to the Abbassides of Bagdad. The race of
Moawiyah seem to have decidedly improved by their migration
westward. The Caliphs of Spain must be allowed one of the
highest places among Mahometan dynasties. In the duration of
their house and in the abundance of able princes which it
produced, they yield only to the Ottoman Sultans, while they
rise incomparably above them in every estimable quality. …
The most splendid period of the Saracen empire in Spain was
during the tenth century. The great Caliph Abdalrahman Annasir
Ledinallah raised the magnificence of the Cordovan monarchy to
its highest pitch. … The last thirty years of the Ommiad
dynasty are a mere wearisome series of usurpations and civil
wars. In 1031 the line became extinct, and the Ommiad empire
was cut up into numerous petty states. From this moment the
Christians advance, no more to retreat, and the cause of Islam
is only sustained by repeated African immigrations."
_E. A. Freeman,
History and Conquests of the Saracens,
lectures 4-5._
ALSO IN:
_H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors,
book 6, chapter 5;
book 7, chapters 1-4;
book 8, chapter 1._
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 763.
The Caliphate transferred to Bagdad.
"The city of Damascus, full as it was of memorials of the
pride and greatness of the Ommiade dynasty, was naturally
distasteful to the Abbassides. The Caliph Mansur had commenced
the building of a new capital in the neighbourhood of Kufa, to
be called after the founder of his family, Hashimiyeh. The
Kufans, however, were devoted partisans of the descendants of
Ali. … The growing jealousy and distrust between the two
houses made it inadvisable for the Beni Abbas to plant the
seat of their empire in immediate propinquity to the
head-quarters of the Ali faction, and Mansur therefore
selected another site [about A. D. 763]. This was Bagdad, on
the western bank of the Tigris [fifteen miles above Medain,
which was the ancient Seleucia and Ctesiphon]. It was well
suited by nature for a great capital. The Tigris brought
commerce from Diyar Bekr on the north, and through the Persian
Gulf from India and China on the east; while the Euphrates,
which here approaches the Tigris at the nearest point, and is
reached by a good road, communicated directly with Syria and
the west. The name Bagdad is a very ancient one, signifying
'given or founded by the deity,' and testifies to the
importance of the site. The new city rapidly increased in
extent and magnificence, the founder and his next two
successors expending fabulous sums upon its embellishment, and
the ancient palaces of the Sassanian kings, as well as the
other principal cities of Asia, were robbed of their works of
art for its adornment."
_E. H. Palmer,
Haroun Alraschid, Caliph of Bagdad,
chapter 2._
"Baghdad, answering to its proud name of 'Dar al Salam,' 'The
City of Peace,' became for a time the capital of the world,
the centre of luxury, the emporium of commerce, and the scat
of learning."
_Sir W. Muir,
Annals of the Early Caliphate,
chapter 50._
{2077}
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 815-945.
Decline and temporal fall of the Caliphate at Bagdad.
"It was not until nearly the close of the first century after
the Hejira that the banners of Islam were carried into the
regions beyond the Oxus, and only after a great deal of hard
fighting that the oases of Bokhara and Samarkand were annexed
to the dominions of the khalif. In these struggles, a large
number of Turks—men, women, and children—fell into the power
of the Moslems, and were scattered over Asia as slaves. …
The khalif Mamoun [son of Haroun Alraschid—A. D. 815-834] was
the first sovereign who conceived the idea of basing the royal
power on a foundation of regularly drilled Turkish soldiers."
_R. D. Osborn,
Islam under the Khalifs of Bagdad,
part 3, chapter 1._
"The Caliphs from this time leaned for support on great bands
of foreign mercenaries, chiefly Turks, and their captains
became the real lords of the empire as soon as they realised
their own strength. How thoroughly the Abbásid caliphate had
been undermined was shown all at once in a shocking manner,
when the Caliph Mutawakkil was murdered by his own servants at
the command of his son, and the parricide Muntasir set upon
the throne in his stead (December 861). The power of the
Caliphs was now at an end; they became the mere playthings of
their own savage warriors. The remoter, sometimes even the
nearer, provinces were practically independent. The princes
formally recognised the Caliph as their sovereign, stamped his
name upon their coins, and gave it precedence in public
prayer, but these were honours without any solid value. Some
Caliphs, indeed, recovered a measure of real power, but only
as rulers of a much diminished State. Theoretically the
fiction of an undivided empire of Islam was maintained, but it
had long ceased to be a reality. The names of Caliph,
Commander of the Faithful, Imám, continued still to inspire
some reverence; the theological doctors of law insisted that
the Caliph, in spiritual things at least, must everywhere bear
rule, and control all judicial posts; but even theoretically
his position was far behind that of a pope, and in practice
was not for a moment to be compared to it. The Caliph never
was the head of a true hierarchy; Islam in fact knows no
priesthood on which such a system could have rested. In the
tenth century the Buids, three brothers who had left the
hardly converted Gilán (the mountainous district at the
southwest angle of the Caspian Sea) as poor adventurers,
succeeded in conquering for themselves the sovereign command
over wide domains, and over Bagdad itself [establishing what
is known as the dynasty of the Buids or Bouides, or Bowides,
or Dilemites]. They even proposed to themselves to displace
the Abbásids and set descendants of Ali upon the throne, and
abandoned the idea only because they feared that a Caliph of
the house of Ali might exercise too great an authority over
their Shíite soldiers, and so become independent; while, on
the other hand, they could make use of these troops for any
violence they chose against the Abbásid puppet who sat in
Mansúr's seat."
_T. Nöldeke,
Sketches from Eastern History,
chapter 3._
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 827-878.
Conquest of Sicily.
See SICILY: A. D. 827-878.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 840-890.
The Saracens in southern Italy.
See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 800-1016.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 908-1171.
The Fatimite caliphs.
"Egypt, during the ninth and tenth centuries, was the theatre
of several revolutions. Two dynasties of Turkish slaves, the
Tolunides and the Ilkshidites, established themselves in that
country, which was only reunited to the Caliphate of Bagdad
for a brief period between their usurpations. But early in the
ninth century a singular power had been growing up on its
western border. … A schism arose among the followers of Ali
[the shiahs, who recognized no succession to the Prophet, or
Imamate—leadership in Islam—except in the line of descent
from Ali, nephew of Mahomet and husband of Mahomet's daughter,
Fatima], regarding the legitimate succession to the sixth Imam,
Jaffer. His eldest son, Ismail or Ishmael, dying before him,
Jaffer appointed another son, Moussa or Moses, his heir. But a
large body of the sect denied that Jaffer had the right to
make a new nomination; they affirmed the Imamate to be
strictly hereditary, and formed a new party of Ishmaelians,
who seem to have made something very like a deity of their
hero. A chief of this sect, Mahomet, surnamed Al Mehdi, or the
Leader, a title given by the Shiahs to their Imams, revolted
in Africa in 908. He professed himself, though his claims were
bitterly derided by his enemies, to be a descendant of
Ishmael, and consequently to be the legitimate Imam. Armed
with this claim, it was of course his business to acquire, if
he could, the temporal power of a Caliph; and as he soon
obtained the sovereignty of a considerable portion of Africa,
a rival Caliphate was consequently established in that
country. This dynasty assumed the name of Fatimites, in honour
of their famous ancestress Fatima, the daughter of the
Prophet. The fourth in succession, Muezzeddin by name,
obtained possession of Egypt about 967. … The Ilkshidites
and their nominal sovereigns, the Abbassides, lost Egypt with
great rapidity. Al Muezzeddin transferred his residence
thither, and founded [at Fostat—see above, A. D. 640-646] the
city of Cairo, which he made his capital. Egypt thus, from a
tributary province, became again, as in the days of its
Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the scat of a powerful kingdom. The
claims of the Egyptian Caliphs were diligently preached
throughout all Islam, and their temporal power was rapidly
extended into the adjoining provinces of Syria and Arabia.
Palestine became again … the battle-field for the lords of
Egypt and of the East. Jerusalem, the holy city of so many
creeds, was conquered and reconquered. … The Egyptian
Caliphate … played an important part in the history of the
Crusades. At last, in 1171, it was abolished by the famous
Saladin. He himself became the founder of a new dynasty; but
the formal aspect of the change was that Egypt, so long
schismatic, was again restored to the obedience of Bagdad.
Saladin was lord of Egypt, but the titles of the Abbasside
Caliph, the true Commander of the Faithful, appeared again on
the coin and in the public prayers, instead of that of his
Fatimite rival."
_E. A. Freeman,
History and Conquests of the Saracens,
lecture 4._
ALSO IN:
_S. Lane-Poole,
The Mohammadan Dynasties,
pages 70-73._
_W. C. Taylor,
History of Mohammedanism and its Sects,
chapters 8 and 10._
See, also,
JERUSALEM: A. D. 1149-1187.
{2078}
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 962-1187.
The Ghaznavide empire.
See INDIA: A. D. 977-1290;
and TURKS: A. D. 999-1183.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 964-976.
Losses in Syria and Cilicia.
See BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 963-1025;
also, ANTIOCH, A. D. 969.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1004-1160.
The Seljuk Conquests.
See TURKS: A. D. 1004-1063 to 1092-1160.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1017.
Expulsion from Sardinia by the Pisans and Genoese.
See PISA: ORIGIN OF THE CITY.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1031-1086.
Fragmentary kingdoms in Spain.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1031-1086.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1060-1090.
The loss of Sicily.
See ITALY: A. D. 1000-1090.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1086-1147.
The empire of the Almoravides.
See ALMORAVIDES.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1146-1232.
The empire of the Almohades.
See ALMOHADES;
and SPAIN: A. D. 1146-1232.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1240-1453.
Conquests of the Ottoman Turks.
See TURKS: A. D. 1240-1326; 1326-1359;
1360-1389; 1389-1403; 1402-1451; and 1451-1481.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1258.
Extinction of the Caliphate of Bagdad by the Mongols.
See BAGDAD: A. D. 1258.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1273-1492.
Decay and fall of the last Moorish kingdom in Spain.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1273-1460; and 1476-1492.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1519-1605.
The Mogul conquest of India.
See INDIA: A. D. 1399-1605.
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