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Saladin & the Unification of the Muslim Front: 1169-1187 CE
Saladin (c. 1137 – 1193 CE), the Muslim ruler who crushed the mighty Crusader army at the Horns of Hattin (1187 CE) and re-took Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader control, was born in a world where the disunity of the Muslims had...
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Zengids & the Crusaders: Race for Egypt (1163-1169 CE)
In the aftermath of the failure of the Second Crusade (1147-1149 CE), which only managed to bring Damascus under Nur ad-Din's (sometimes also given as Nur al-Din, l. 1118-1174 CE) dominion, Egypt acquired top priority – both from a...
Definition
Muhammad Ghori
Shihab al-Din (also Muʿizz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam), popularly known as Muhammad Ghori (r. 1173-1206 CE), was the Muslim ruler who laid the foundation for the subsequent Islamic ruling dynasties of India which saw its pinnacle later in the...
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The Siege of Damascus, 1148 CE
The siege of Damascus in 1148 CE was the final act of the Second Crusade (1147-1149 CE). Lasting a mere four days from 24 to 28 July, the siege by a combined western European army was not successful, and the Crusade petered out with its leaders...
Definition
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade (1147-1149 CE) was a military campaign organised by the Pope and European nobles to recapture the city of Edessa in Mesopotamia which had fallen in 1144 CE to the Muslim Seljuk Turks. Despite an army of 60,000 and the presence...
Definition
Saladin
Saladin (1137-93) was the Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria (r. 1174-1193) who shocked the western world by defeating an army of the Christian Crusader states at the Battle of Hattin and then capturing Jerusalem in 1187. Saladin all but destroyed...
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Nur ad-Din, from the History of Outremer
A miniature painting of Sultan Nur ad-Din (also spelt Nur al-Din, 1118 - 1170 CE), from a manuscript of the History of Outremer by William of Tyre (c. 1130 - 1186 CE). The manuscript containing this image (Yates Thompson 12 f. 132) was...
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Nasir al-Din al-Tusi & Observatory
A 16th century CE illustration showing the famed Persian astronomer and scientist Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274 CE) in his observatory at Maragha, then part of the Mongol Ilkhanate. (British Library, London)
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Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad
Modern statue of Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad (1163-1202 CE), Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
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Capture of the Elamite city of Din-Sharri
This alabaster bas relief was part of a large wall relief that depicts the military campaign of Ashurbanipal against the Elamite city of Din-sharri. The relief shows an Assyrian soldier leading a captured woman and a cow away, as part of...