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Abbasid Baghdad

750 CE – 1258 CE

The Islamic Golden Age centred on Baghdad's House of Wisdom — astronomy, algebra, and medicine flourishing while caravans linked three continents.

171 events · 281 people · 1 eras

Key events

1. Siege of Antioch1097 CE
   The siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade in 1097 and 1098, on the Crusaders' way to Jerusalem through Syria. Two sieges took place in succession. The Crusaders sieged the city held by the Seljuk Empire from 20 October 1097 to 3 June 1098, when the Crusaders successfully took the city. A Seljuk relieving army then sieged the Crusaders for three weeks in late June. The second siege led to the Battle of Antioch in which the Crusaders defeated the Seljuks led by Kerbogha. The Crusaders then established the Principality of Antioch, ruled by Bohemond of Taranto.
2. Battle of Harran1104 CE
   The Battle of Harran took place on 7 May 1104 between the Crusader states of the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa, and the Seljuk Turks. It was the first major battle against the newfound Crusader states in the aftermath of the First Crusade, marking a key turning point against Frankish expansion. The battle had a disastrous effect on the Principality of Antioch as the Turks regained territory earlier lost.
3. Battle of Ager Sanguinis1119 CE
   In the Battle of Ager Sanguinis, also known as the Battle of the Field of Blood, the Battle of Sarmada, or the Battle of Balat, Roger of Salerno's Crusader army of the Principality of Antioch was annihilated by the army of Ilghazi of Mardin, the Artuqid ruler of Aleppo on 28 June 1119.
4. 1138 Aleppo earthquake1138 CE
   The 1138 Aleppo earthquake was among the deadliest earthquakes in history. Its name was taken from the city of Aleppo, in northern Syria, where the most casualties were sustained. The earthquake also caused damage and chaos to many other places in the area around Aleppo. The earthquake occurred on 11 October 1138 and was preceded by a smaller quake on the 10th. It is frequently listed as the third deadliest earthquake in history, following on from the Shensi and Tangshan earthquakes in China. However, the figure of 230,000 deaths reported by Ibn Taghribirdi in the fifteenth century is most likely based on a historical conflation of this earthquake with earthquakes in November 1137 on the Jazira plain and the large seismic event of 30 September 1139 in the Transcaucasian city of Ganja.
5. Battle of the Zab750 CE
   The Battle of the Zab, also referred to in scholarly contexts as Battle of the Great Zāb River, took place on January 25, 750, on the banks of the Great Zab in what is now the modern country of Iraq. It spelled the end of the Umayyad Caliphate and the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate, which would last from 750 to 1258.
6. Siege of Damascus1148 CE
   The siege of Damascus took place between 24 and 28 July 1148, during the Second Crusade. It ended in a crusader defeat and led to the disintegration of the crusade. The two main Christian forces that marched to the Holy Land in response to Pope Eugene III and Bernard of Clairvaux's call for the Second Crusade were led by Kings Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. Both faced disastrous marches across Anatolia in the months that followed, with most of their armies being destroyed. The original focus of the crusade was Edessa (Urfa), but in Jerusalem, the preferred target of King Baldwin III and the Knights Templar was Damascus. At the Council of Acre, magnates from France, Germany, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem decided to divert the crusade to Damascus.
7. Zanj Rebellion869 CE
   The Zanj Rebellion was a major revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate, which took place from 869 until 883. Begun near the city of Basra in present-day southern Iraq and led by one Ali ibn Muhammad, the insurrection involved both enslaved and freed Africans exported in the Indian Ocean slave trade and transported to slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate in the Middle East, principally to drain the region's salt marshes. It grew to involve slaves and freemen, including both Eastern Africans and Arabs, from several regions of the Caliphate, and claimed tens of thousands of lives before it was fully defeated.
8. Battle of Dandanaqan1040 CE
   The Battle of Dandanaqan was fought in 1040 between the Seljuq Turkmens and the Ghaznavid Empire near the city of Merv. The battle ended with a decisive Seljuq victory, which subsequently brought down the Ghaznavid domination in Greater Khorasan.
9. Siege of Ma'arra1098 CE
   The siege of Ma'arra occurred in late 1098 in the city of Ma'arrat Nu'man, in what is modern-day Syria, during the First Crusade. It is infamous for the claims of widespread cannibalism committed by the Crusaders.
10. Battle of Azaz1125 CE
    The Battle of Azaz was fought on 11 June 1125 between King Baldwin II of Jerusalem's crusader forces and allied Muslim forces led by Aq-Sunqur al-Bursuqi, the Seljuq atabeg of Mosul. One of the bloodiest confrontations before the Second Crusade, the battle resulted in a decisive victory for the Crusaders, causing disturbances of power in the Levant and weakening Seljuk domination in the area. Contemporary chronicler Matthew of Edessa even states that the remnants of al-Bursuqi's army were chased all the way to Aleppo. The battle effectively lifted the siege of Azaz and prevented it from falling to Turkoman hands.
11. Battle of Inab1149 CE
    The Battle of Inab, also called Battle of Ard al-Hâtim or Fons Muratus, was fought on 29 June 1149, during the Second Crusade. The Zengid army of the atabeg Nur al-Din Zengi destroyed the combined army of Prince Raymond of Antioch and the Assassins of Ali ibn-Wafa. The prince was killed, and the Principality of Antioch was subsequently pillaged and reduced in size as its eastern border was pushed west.
12. Battle of Sarmin1115 CE
    The Battle of Sarmin, also known as the Battle of Tell Danith, took place on 14 September 1115 with Roger of Salerno's Crusader army surprising and routing the Seljuk Turkish army of Bursuq ibn Bursuq of Hamadan. It is also known as the First Battle of Tell Danith, distinguishing it from the Battle of Hab of 1119, the Second Battle of Tell Danith.

Notable people

• Genghis Khan1162 CE – 1227 CE
• Saladin1138 CE – 1193 CE
• Frederick Barbarossa1122 CE – 1190 CE
• Gustave Doré1832 CE – 1883 CE
• Hulegu Khan1217 CE – 1265 CE
• Louis VII of France1120 CE – 1180 CE
• Nasir al-Din al-Tusi1201 CE – 1273 CE
• Godfrey of Bouillon1060 CE – 1100 CE
• Manuel I Komnenos1118 CE – 1180 CE
• Basil II958 CE – 1025 CE
• Alp Arslan1029 CE – 1072 CE
• Mahmud of Ghazni971 CE – 1030 CE

Cultural works

Eras spanning this view

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Events from Wikipedia/Wikidata (CC-BY-SA); base map © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); era boundaries are a hand-curated set in v1. Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected].