Ruling from Ctesiphon on the Tigris river, Persian Sassanians used religion, specifically Zoroastrianism, to consolidate the bureaucracy of their large empire. At the center of silk roads connecting the Mediterranean, India, and China, this empire had significant presence in overland trade. By the sixth century, the Sassanian Persians dominated maritime trade in the western Indian Ocean as well, but their wealth and geographic placement made them a target for empires surrounding them. Eventually, the empire fell to advancing Muslim forces.
250 - 900
Maya Empire
The Maya Classic period lasted from about 250 to 900. With a network of over 40 major cities and a population of around 2 million, the Maya built pyramids, ball courts, and other impressive architectural sites. Maya excelled at astronomy, mathematics, and art, and developed the sophisticated Long Count calendar, which coordinated the movements of the moon and of the sun and began with the creation of humanity, roughly 3114 BCE according to Maya mythology. Maya traded goods like obsidian, cocoa beans, salt, and quetzal feathers around the Mesoamerican world. Overpopulation, warfare, and droughts brought on by the Medieval Climate Anomaly, help to explain why the Maya empire collapsed in the tenth century.
Discovered in 1994, the Tomb of the Red Queen is the seventh-century grave of a Maya woman of high status. Her remains and the objects buried with her were covered with vivid red cinnabar powder.
300 - 600
Early Church Councils
Early in the formation of Christian church doctrine, councils were held to debate theological issues and define an orthodox position on them. The two most contentious debates centered on the nature of Christ and the nature of the Trinity, and major decisions on these issues were made at The Council of Nicaea (325) and the Council of Chalcedon (451). Those who disagreed with these doctrines broke with the other sects and were often persecuted as heretics. After the Council of Nicaea, Arian Christians detached from the main body of churches. A lasting result of the Council of Chalcedon was the Chalcedonian Schism of 451 when the Oriental Orthodox Churches, such as the Ethiopian church centered in Aksum, split from the other patriarchies. By the 900, there were three dominate Christianities: Roman (or Latin), Byzantine (or Orthodox), and Oriental (such as Coptic, Ethiopian, Syriac, and Armenian).
Recently dated to between 330 and 650 by radiocarbon testing, the Ethiopian gospel book called Abba Garmina III is the oldest gospel to contain images of all four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
320 - 550
Gupta period
Ruler Samudragupta (ca. 335-375) united much of the Indian subcontinent, creating the Gupta Empire. Like other early medieval leaders, he used cavalry to subdue areas that had rarely seen soldiers on horseback. Samudragupta was also an active poet and patron of the arts. Known as the Golden Age of India, architecture, design, and literature flourished in this period, Alongside the medical practice of Ayurveda and advances in science. Trade with China, the Sassanians, and Africa brought new commodities into India, and Indian goods moved into those regions as well. Increased pressure from Central Asian steppe raiders and internal conflicts caused this empire to break apart in the mid-sixth century.
540 - 1100
Wari (Huari) Empire
Dominant in western South America during the Middle Horizon period (600 – 1000), this civilization of city centers controlled tributary states along the Andean mountains, taking over areas once ruled by the Moche empire (100-700). Exacting tribute in labor and goods, the Wari built roads and temples and connected populaces through markets. The Wari created quipu knots, a method of remembering and organizing information through the use of colored threads and knots. The Medieval Climate Anomaly affected this empire, causing severe droughts and a dwindling population beginning around 800. In 2013, a Peruvian-Polish research group uncovered a Wari burial tomb containing artifacts such as jewelry, tools for ore mining and smelting, and the bodies of three women, wrapped in colorful and intricate Wari textiles. The royal women showed evidence of repeated removal from the alcoves, most probably in rites of ancestor worship common in the region.
550 - 600
Helgö Buddha and the spread of Buddhism
The tiny, three-inch Indian Buddha featured on the cover of this book was found in 1954 in a hoard of treasures, mostly gold coins and jewelry, buried in the medieval period on Helgö Island in Sweden. It was made in the sixth century in the far north of present-day India/Pakistan and carried by hand, or from hand to hand, across rivers and landscapes to the edge of the North Sea and is evidence of cross-cultural trade early in the period 500 – 1500. The Buddhist world was, and is, vast and diverse. Mahayana Buddhism spread from India through the Himalayas and into China by the Later Han dynasty (25–220 CE). From China, this tradition moved into Korea from the fourth century CE, but primarily during the united Silla Kingdom (668–935 CE); into Japan during the Asuka period (sixth century CE); and into Indonesia by the fifth century CE. In Southeast Asia, Theravada Buddhism emerged in Sri Lanka by the third century BCE and in Thailand and Cambodia by the first century CE.
Helgö Buddha
569 - 618
Yang-di
Emperor of China after he assassinated his father Wen-di, Yang-di solidified his rule through great building projects and aggressive tactics against his enemies. Wen-di had allowed tribal peoples into many areas of the bureaucratic government and through these northern men established a solid kingdom, mostly free from civil and external warfare. Yang-di sought to remove the “barbarians” from governmental service, but actively recruited tribal cavalry and their strategies for his armies, especially for the invasion of Korea. He also included them in the building of the Grand Canal, which connected the Yangtze and Yellow rivers and allowed for easier travel and commerce.
570 - 632
Muhammad
Born sometime near 570, Muhammad was the founder of Islam. In 610, Muhammad retreated to a cave outside his native Mecca where he received the word of Allah through the angel Jibril (or Gabriel). Through his revelations, spread by word-of-mouth and recorded in the Qur’an, he attracted many followers to the new faith of Islam. In 622, under pressure from tribal rivals, Muhammad and a large group of recently converted followers fled north from Mecca to Medina. This emigration from Mecca to Medina is called the hijra, Arabic for “flight,” and is a significant event in Islamic history. The year 622 of the Christian-based common calendar is year one of the Islamic calendar.
574 - 622
Prince Shotoku
A powerful cultural leader and devout Buddhist, Shotoku embraced Chinese literature, language, and ideas and popularized them with the Japanese ruling classes. He wrote and promulgated the Seventeen Article Constitution (604), which outlined the virtues necessary for bureaucrats and government officials. Shotoku based his constitution, the first in Japan, on Confucian and Buddhist ideals.
Emperor Shotoku of Nara Japan (574–622) and his two sons as depicted on an eighth-century hanging scroll in the Museum of Imperial Collections in Tokyo, Japan.
618 - 907
Tang Dynasty
Centered in the city of Xi’an, the Tang unified control over the western regions of China and expanded trade within China and beyond. The Tang established army garrisons throughout the Western Regions, where they traded horses and their feed for bronze coins, silks, and grain—all of which served as currency for payments, salaries, and taxes. A period of growth economically and socially, the Tang oversaw improvements in science and medicine, in addition to great works of literature and visual art. Weakened by the tenth century by rebellions and invasions, the Tang were replaced by the Song.
Tang dynasty musicians and dancers. Birmingham Museum of Art, UK.
625 - 705
Wu Zetian
A significant figure of the early Tang dynasty, the Empress Wu aligned herself with the religion of Buddhism and spread the faith within her empire. Her patronage included several large-scale construction projects, like the Buddha at the Longmen Grottoes. A concubine who rose to become sole ruler of China, she acted as regent for her ailing husband and her sons until finally taking the throne herself. Her regnal name in Chinese combined the elements for sun (male) and moon (female) and, as such, she created a nonbinary space for her rule – she was more than male, more than female. In 705 after ruling for fifteen years, Wu was deposed and soon after died of an illness. She was 81.
As the light of her people, the Empress Wu Zetian carries a symbolic lantern. In this fresco from the seventh/eight century, she and her handmaiden are adorned in rich silks
654 - 655
Battle of the Masts
At the Battle of the Masts (654/655), a newly Muslim fleet of ships appropriated from Christians Byzantines – possibly numbering 500 – 600 – was able to defeat a Byzantine naval force, thus showing the power of Islam and Islamic forces as they spread rapidly out from the Arabian Peninsula. Over the course of the eighth century, Muslim armies raided and conquered other islands and shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and by the ninth century, Muslim dominance of the Mediterranean sea lanes was complete.
Byzantine forces based in Constantinople used Greek fire to protect the city from Muslim attack. Composed primarily of naptha, Greek fire was launched at ships and burst into flame, where it continued to burn even after contact with the water.
661 - 750
Umayyad Dynasty
The first major dynasty of caliphs after the death of Muhammad. Although plagued by insurrections and sectarian conflict (like the Battle of Karbala in 680), the Umayyad caliphs ruled over a generally peaceful empire from their capital at Damascus, Syria. The Umayyad government often used non-Arabs in positions of local power and adopted many of the local Greek (and later Persian) administrative techniques. Ousted by the Abbasids in 750, Umayyad loyalists fled to Spain where they held power over al-Andalus from 711 – 1031.
668 - 935
Kingdom of Unified Silla
An alliance with the Tang empire to the south gave the rulers of Silla the money and men to conquer most of the Korean peninsula. This became the first dynasty to rule the entire peninsula. Seafarers from Unified Silla were also deeply involved in the maritime networks coursing across the East China Sea and into the Indian Ocean; the kingdom became wealthy from such trade, and the culture of Korea expanded during this period, especially in art and architecture. Buddhism became the state religion and Chinese Confucianism was influential in bureaucratic circles. Class-based rebellions led to the decline of Unified Silla and a new empire, the Koryo dynasty (935-1392) formed in its wake.
701 - 762
Li Po / Li Bai
Li Po was a poet of the eighth century (Tang dynasty) in China. Although he had jobs working for the Emperor Xuanzong, he was fired and participated in revolts after the An Lushan Rebellion. Arrested for treason, he was pardoned and wandered throughout the Yangtze river valley, composing poems about the common yet complicated emotions of everyday life. He wrote over 2000 poems, 1800 of which are still extant.
726 - 843
Iconoclastic Controversy
Icons are representations, such as paintings or mosaics, that have the likeness of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, saints, or narrative scenes of Christ’s life. They were used by many Christians as the focus for their devotion and prayers, but others worried that artistic representations of religious figures could easily lead to the worship of the image and not the holy figure it represented, thus breaking the commandment that one shall not worship idols in place of God. In the eighth century, icons were outlawed by the Byzantine emperors, which caused a rift within Greek society. The Byzantine effort to stop the use of icons in Latin Christendom was rejected by the popes, which contributed to the widening gap between eastern and western Churches. Iconoclasm was reversed in 843 by Empress Theodora, but many early works of art had been destroyed or defaced.
747 - 814
Charlemagne
Charlemagne (Charles the Great) was born around 747 to the first Carolingian king, Pippin I. He ruled in Francia and expanded his kingdom to be the largest post-Roman empire in Western Europe. He was crowned Roman emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, 800 Charlemagne encouraged building and education and promoted Christianity, sometimes violently. Charlemagne attempted to revive the ancient Roman silver coinage system—some with his image as emperor, and others, with Christian crosses on the front and his monogram on the back.
A silver coin called a denarius that depicts Charles the Great in the style of ancient Roman imperial coins.
751 - 751
Battle of Talas
Battle between Tang Chinese troops and Abbasid Muslim forces, along with Abbasid allies in the Tibetan Kingdom. At the Battle of Talas, the Tang advance was stopped in the Syr Darya region of Russia by an Abbasid army. It was a crushing defeat – only 2000 Chinese soldiers escaped, and many Tibetan and Mongolian mercenaries defected to the Muslim side. This victory by Muslim-led armies was followed by a significant expansion of the religion of Islam into Central Asia; many of the Turkic peoples in the region converted.
756 - 756
An Lushan Rebellion
The An Lushan Rebellion centered on General An Lushan, a Sogdian nomad from a peasant family, who rose to become a Chinese general and later conquer northern China. Chinese armies from across the land were assembled to defeat the revolution, but the Tang lost control over northern and western China. The revolt destabilized the economy and cause significant social insecurity. The An Lushan rebellion was one of several rebellions during the Tang dynasty, all of which caused disruption and instability.
830 - 830
Belitung Shipwreck
Discovered in 1998, the Belitung is an important witness to the magnitude of the ceramics export in the early medieval period. The boat sank off the coast of Indonesia around 830 with more than 60,000 pieces of Chinese ceramicware on board. Also among the cargo were gold and silver items and valuable spices such as star anise. The boat itself was a dhow, a common vessel along the Persian Gulf and western Indian Ocean sea lanes, possibly sailed by Muslims from the Persian Gulf to a Chinese port, where its original cargo was sold, and local goods were purchased and packed for the return trip westward. It is unclear why the boat sank where it did – quite a bit south of the expected route from China to the Persian Gulf.
The Jewel of Muscat is a dhow modeled after the Belitung shipwreck. It is in the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore.
833 - 833
al-Mamun
Al-Mamun (died 833) sponsored a translation movement that was part of a great think-tank in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad. Now called the House of Wisdom, it was a community of philosophers, linguists, and scientists translating into Arabic a vast collection of texts in Greek, Latin, Indian, Persian, and other languages. The inventions and innovations made possible by this expansion of texts and ideas endowed a tolerant and prosperous culture under the Abbasid rulers. Al-Mamun’s reign is considered part of the Golden Age of Islam.
850 - 850
al-Khwarizmi
An important figure of the Golden Age of Islam, al-Khwarizmi (d. ca. 850) was a Persian intellectual whose major work, On the Calculation of Hindu Numerals, was the first introduction of the Hindu numbering system to societies outside India. Al-Khwarizmi also worked on astronomical tables, figured the circumference of the Earth, created a map that included Eastern Asia and Africa, and invented algebra. In fact, the word algebra comes from al-Khwarizmi’s book on the topic, The Book of Calculation by Completion and Balancing, which was commonly known by one word in the Arabic title, al-jabr, or algebra.
868 - 868
The Diamond Sutra from the Magao Caves at Dunhuang, China
Situated at a key nexus of the silk roads, the Magao Grottoes at Dunhuang, China are a network of nearly 500 caves that were constructed and occupied by Buddhist monks and others between the fourth and fifteenth centuries. In the early 1900s, scholars discovered the so-called Library Cave (referred to as cave number 17), containing 400,000 rolled scrolls that had been hidden there for centuries. The languages and writing systems of the Dunhuang manuscripts provide a window into the cross-cultural diversity of this holy site. Among the many valuable texts is a copy the Diamond Sutra, known as the world’s earliest printed book, dated by inscription to 868.
The Diamond Sutra, the world’s oldest printed book.
869 - 883
Zanj Slave Revolts
Bantu-speaking peoples were enslaved and shipped from eastern Africa to the agricultural fields in the region that is now Iraq, where they were forced to drain swampy salt flats in the southern region of the Fertile Crescent. Their lives were extremely harsh and short, so when a religious leader from an egalitarian sect of Islam promised freedom to any who would support his war against the caliph in Baghdad, many thousands of the enslaved revolted against their Muslim overseers. This lengthy rebellion—the largest slave revolt in Islamic history—caused insecurity for Abbasid military, economic, and political control in the area and may have contributed to a decline in Abbasid central authority and in the Indian Ocean slave trade.
871 - 899
Alfred the Great
Alfred ruled Wessex, a kingdom in southern England, from 871 to 899. A military strategist and commander, he successfully defended his territory against invading Vikings, keeping them to the north and east of the British island. He believed in preserving and promoting the language of his people and commissioned scribes to translate Latin texts into English. He himself participated in the literacy movement by translating, among other works, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy and St. Augustine's Soliloquies.
900 - 1200
300 - 1100
Kingdom of Ghana
By 800, stable village communities were transformed in Ghana by increased iron-ore production. At the same time, we see the growth of urban infrastructure: entrenchment and walls surrounded larger villages, which had central squares, possibly for trade and civic duties. The surge of quarrying in the area led to rise in gold mining. By the mid-tenth century, Ghana’s kings controlled much of the neighboring territory, gaining tributes and taxes from the tribes and groups that settled near the large trade centers. With the use of the camel (introduced to the area in the 300s), the Ghanaians controlled the trans-Saharan trade in west and north Africa. Gold, salt, copper, iron weapons and more moved between West Africa and trade centers further north.
750 - 1258
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ruled from the city of Baghdad, which developed into a great center of wealth, culture, and learning. The caliphs found that ruling an extensive empire from a base in Iraq was difficult, and many of the regional governors (emirs) across the wide Islamicate world governed essentially independently. This helped solidify their rule across the Islamicate world, as men from local areas governed with the support of the central Abbasid court. The Abbasid regime also faced numerous revolts and invasions, from the Zanj slave revolt to the invasions of Turks (who came to rule as sultans owing technical obeisance to the caliphs) and Mongols (who eventually overran the city of Baghdad and killed the last caliph in 1258).
794 - 1192
Heian Period, Japan
A period of relative peace (heian means peace in Japanese) in Japan, the Heian government saw the rise of several powerful noble families who dominated the empire from their position as regents for the emperors. From 856 to 1086, the Fujiwara clan ruled behind the emperor’s throne, manipulating and holding on to power through strategic marriage alliances and forcing other major families to spend much of their year in the court city.
850 - 1150
Chaco Canyon Settlement
Chaco was the center of a complex system of settlements inhabited by the Ancestral Pueblo people. It served as the ceremonial, cultural, economic, and perhaps administrative hub of communities throughout the surrounding region of the San Juan basin (modern southern Colorado and Utah and northern New Mexico, US). Archeologists have uncovered layers of construction that happened until the mid-twelfth century, when it is likely that the canyon’s population migrated to nearby Pueblo settlements like Mesa Verde (in today’s southwestern Colorado). Mesa Verde may have usurped Chaco’s primacy between 1150-1300, but a changing climate—the end of the “Medieval Climatic Anomaly,” which had drastic effects on agriculture and disease in Europe, as discussed elsewhere—brought extensive drought to this region, causing further migration and the abandonment of Mesa Verde by 1300.
In cylindrical jars like this one found at Chaco Canyon in the southwestern US, archeologists have found the residue of cacao, evidence of trade with Meso-American peoples far to the south who drank chocolate beverages for ceremonies.
909 - 1171
Fatimid Caliphate
The Shi’ite Muslim caliphate that ruled northern Africa, Egypt, and parts of the Levant—including, for some time, the holy cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. This dynasty of caliphs was named after Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad who married Ali and gave birth to Muhammad’s grandsons Hassan and Hussein. Shi’ite Muslims held that the role of caliph (or successor to the Prophet) should fall to Muhammad’s closest living relatives—namely Ali, Hassan, and Hussein. This position was rejected by the Sunni Umayyad dynasty that established their caliphal capital at Damascus in 661. After several violent clashes, like the Battle of Karbala in 680 in which Hussein was killed, Shi’ite Islam became an alternative sect led by imams. But in 909, one of the Imams in North Africa declared himself caliph and began conquering Abbasid territories across North Africa. In 969 they conquered Egypt and in 973 established their capital at Cairo. The Fatimid caliphate was dismantled in 1171 by Saladin—the Sunni Muslim leader who led successful armies against Christian crusaders in the Levant (taking Jerusalem in 1187) and who also conquered Shi’ite Egypt and made himself Sultan of Egypt, a title which went to his family members after his death.
927 - 927
Vale of York Hoard
This hoard was buried around 927 near York, England (a Viking settlement). It includes 617 silver coins and 65 other metal objects—mostly silver ingots and decorative items such as armbands, but also a gilded cup containing the coins. The items came from Iran, Central Asia, Russia, Ireland, North Africa, Scandinavia, and continental Europe, demonstrating inter-connections among cultures in this period and the Vikings’ roles as mediators of those connections.
This silver dirham from the Vale of York hoard was minted under the Samanid dynasty (819–999), which ruled Iran and its broader region independent of the Abbasid caliphs at Baghdad.
935 - 973
Hrotsvita of Gandersheim
Hrotsvita, born around 935, was a nun who was the first German playwright and the first German historian. She was the first northern European to write about Islam, which she references in her history of the Ottonian empire. She wrote hagiographies, theology, grammar and logic, poetry and letters, and also a book on history, dedicated to Otto I and Otto II, which she personally presented to Otto II. Her plays are humorous and show the female-only environments of the monasteries as places of joy and learning.
940 - 940
Abolqasem Ferdowsi
Abolqasem Ferdowsi wrote the Shahnemeh, also called the Persian Book of Kings (1010) It is 50,000 poetic lines of Persian history—mythical, legendary, and factual—beginning with the creation of the world according to Zoroastrian scripture, moving through the legendary and historical kings of Persia, and concluding with the final, deposed ruler of the Sassanian dynasty, Yazdegard III (624-651). The most popular hero of Shahnemeh is Rostam.
This mid-fifteenth-century illumination from Shahnemeh depicts the Persian hero Rostam taming Rakhsh, the foal that will grow to be Rostam’s mighty steed and constant companion.
960 - 1279
Song Dynasty
With active markets in cities and towns as well as expansive networks of foreign import and export, the Song oversaw the development of a fully monetized economy. The government held monopolies on salt, tea, alcohol, paper money, and sulfur, and the taxes became so high that many Chinese stopped purchasing these items. The Song controlled a much smaller territory than the Tang dynasty did, and with a reduction in both number and status in their military forces, they did not expand either north or westward, into “barbarian” territory. They faced consistent pressures from the north and the west as different Central Asian steppe peoples encroached on the older Tang dynasty.
970 - 1020
Leif Eiriksson
Son of Eirik the Red, Leif Eiriksson (born around 970) sailed among Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and North America. The Icelandic Saga of the Greenlanders tells the story of Leif and his crew of 35 men setting sail for North America from Greenland, where they landed, built shelters and began exploring. They returned to Greenland with vines and timber, and the expedition sparked intense interest in Vinland. The sagas describe later explorers seeking permission to borrow the buildings that Leif had built, suggesting that the Vikings repeatedly reused the same settlements. The Gokstad ship is an example of Viking sea faring engineering. Built , ca. 880–900, particularly suited to sailing quickly over open seas. It was rowed by 32 people and had room for passengers and moderate amounts of cargo.
The Gokstad ship, ca. 880–900, was preserved in the burial mound of a Viking chieftain. It is one type of boat used by raiders and explorers.
980 - 1015
Vladimir I
Vladimir I ruled Kievan Rus from 980-1015. A descendant of Scandinavian conquerors who ruled over the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe, Vladimir sought to secure and enlarge his power through conversion to Byzantine Christianity (988). He employed Christianity and his status over the Byzantines to consolidate his rule, convert his people, build churches, and begin a program for literacy using the Cyrillic alphabet.
987 - 1328
Capetian Dynasty
French kings who regulated their kingship by associating the eldest surviving son as the heir apparent during the lifetime of his father. This process, of crowning their sons as co-kings (along with their good luck in producing a long series of male heirs who lived to adulthood), enabled the Capetian family to control the French throne for over 300 years. Bureaucratic institutions like law courts were founded by the Capetians.
1020 - 1020
Genji Monogatari, or Tale of Genji
Written by Lady Murasaki around 1020, the Tale of Genji is considered the world’s first novel. With the backdrop the Genji clan and their rise to prominence, the epic focuses on the love affairs of Genji, a beautiful man of refined culture, an excellent lover, and a poet. His romantic relationships are many and short lived, as he moves through Japan and the dramatic events of hi clan wresting control from the Fujiwara.
1025 - 1025
Serçe Limanı wreck
This was a Greek Christian merchant ship that sank off the southwestern coast of Anatolia around 1025 while carrying three metric tons of broken glass (cullet) intended for recycling. With this shipwreck, we can both see a concrete example of Muslim-Christian trade in the eastern Mediterranean and glimpse the shipboard activities and lives of the sailors who carried out that trade.
The main cargo of the Serçe Limanı was broken glass for recycling, but intact items also attest to the small-scale trade items or gifts purchased by the sailors to take back home.
1054 - 1054
The Great Schism
The official and final separation of western European Christianity as controlled from Rome and Byzantine Orthodoxy as controlled from Constantinople. It was not a dramatic rupture; instead, it formalization the division and disagreement that grew steadily from the mid-fifth century on. The precipitating event in 1054 was the formal declaration of excommunication against the Patriarch of Constantinople by a representative of the Pope who had traveled to Constantinople to settle disputes over doctrinal and administrative matters. But the linguistic and practical differences between the Churches at Rome and Constantinople were firmly in place far prior to this act.
1090 - 1164
Heloise
Heloise, born around 1090, was a highly educated wealthy young woman in Paris. She was nominatissima, “the most renowned” woman of her day, literate in Latin, Greek, Hebrew. Heloise was tutored by Peter Abelard, and their scholarship turned into a love affair. A secret marriage and the birth of a son prompted Heloise’s uncle to have Abelard castrated. Both he and Heloise joined monasteries and years later they wrote letters back and forth to each other.
1094 - 1099
First Crusade
• These were military actions by western Christians in the Middle East. Traditionally dated from 1094-1099, the Crusade began when Pope Urban II spoke to a crowd of bishops and laypeople in southern France, at the cathedral in Clermont. In the midst of a discussion on reform movements in the Roman church, Urban urged knights to travel to the Holy Lands to aid the Byzantine armies. Facing a divided enemy (the Turks, the Abbasids, and the Byzantines continued infighting; even Abbasid lands in the Levant were divided between independent petty governors), the Europeans were able to enter Jerusalem in 1099 as conquerors. Some of the European conquerors subsequently became rulers, creating western European-style kingdoms in the Levant: The County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. And from 1094 to 1291, thousands of Europeans poured into the ports and cities in the Levant and Egypt, seeking lands, treasures, and indulgences (forgiveness for sins).
1098 - 1179
Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard was a German visionary who wrote works explaining God’s plan, his creation of the universe, and the healing powers of music and plants. She bypassed gender, educational, and social restrictions by communing directly with divinity. and recorded her revelations and insights in detailed and illustrated manuscripts. Hildegard’s twelfth-century Scivias, or Know the Way to the Lord, is a record of her revelations.
The German mystic Hildegard von Bingen receives knowledge from God (the red waves coming from above and connecting to her head) and uses a wax tablet on which to record them.
1100 - 1100
The Wieliczka Salt Mine
Salt was one of the most valuable and sought-after trade items of the medieval period. Those who lived in regions with naturally occurring salt – mines, salt flats, or ways of processing salt water – took advantage of the trading power it gave them. For example, in the eleventh century miners in Poland began mining precious salt deposits near Krakow. Over the next 200 years, they established 100 miles of intricate tunnels, the deepest of which is 1,000 feet. Backed by revenue from salt, Casimir the Great (1310-1370) founded the first university of Poland; a third of his treasury was funded by salts from this mine.
1100 - 1100
Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry, finished around 1100, tells a pictorial story of historical events of the Norman conquest of England, begun in 1066. The conquest is displayed in detail on a ground of linen cloth 224 feet long and about 20 inches tall; it was “read” like a comic, from left to right, with scenes of the lives of Edward the Confessor, William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold Godwinson playing out through the frames. The upper and lower registers show Aesop’s fables and other events that some have said offer a “counterpoint” to the official history of the embroidery.
1130 - 1200
Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi was a prominent Neo-Confucian author of the Southern Song Dynasty (960 – 1279). To bring women back from Buddhist nunneries into lay communities, he wrote Family Rituals, a manual dictating women’s involvement in familial customs. A Neo-Confucian, Zhu Xi’s works influenced China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. His work Four Books, a compilation of Confucian texts, became the basis for the Yuan dynasty’s (1271-1368) official bureaucratic examination.
1135 - 1204
Moses Maimonides
One of the most recognized Jewish writers from the medieval period, Moses ben Maimonides wrote on Jewish law and thought. Like other great scholars of his age, Maimonides sought to reconcile secular and religious thought but also wrote works on astronomy and medicine. Personal letters found in the Cairo Geniza are a glimpse into his family life and the pressures of working as a rabbi and personal assistant to highly placed political leaders. One letter written in Judeo-Arabic was sent to him in 1170 by his brother David Maimonides. David writes that he had missed the departure of the caravan with which he intended to travel from Cairo to a port in Sudan. When he arrived separately at the port, he learned that the caravan had been robbed and many people killed. While he was grateful for his good luck, it did not continue. David chose to set sail for India – a risky proposition that his brother opposed – where his ship sank, and he drowned. The grief caused by his death plunged Maimonides into what he described in another letter as a years-long depression.
A letter from David Maimonides to his brother Moses Maimonides, the brilliant Jewish philosopher.
1162 - 1227
Genghis Khan (born Temüjin)
Through military might, decisive leadership, and political machinations, Temujin succeeding in uniting most of the Mongol tribes. He gained the title Genghis (sometimes spelled Chinggis), or “Great Khan” for his actions. As khan, Genghis forbade looting of conquered areas, shared war spoils with his entire army, and welcomed the subjugated peoples into his empire (after the heat of war), often asking his mother to adopt children orphaned by his battles. From 1207 to his death in 1227, Genghis traveled the Eurasian steppes and created the largest land empire in history. Like his warriors, he was trained from childhood to be an effective warrior on horseback.
A Mongol archer on horseback as depicted in a Chinese painting on paper from the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries.
1184 - 1184
Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love
A poet and writer, Andreas the Chaplain was a member of the court of Marie de France, He wrote The Art of Courtly Love, an instruction manual on the intricate social rules of seduction as developed in the love lyrics of French troubadours, traveling performers who came from Occitania, a region in southern France. Based on a Roman precedent (Ovid’s Art of Love), his book was popular and his ideas on love permeated other medieval works, especially those about King Arthur and his court.
1185 - 1333
Kamakura period
Japanese political period, known as the bakafu or “tent government” (because soldiers live in tents) and either the Minamoto or the Fujiwara clan (from the Heian period) controlled the seat of government and the emperor himself. Primarily concerned with military over civil affairs, the shoguns and their men let the civil servants control their personal areas; this decentralized Japan further, as local and national governments were not tightly connected.
1190 - 1264
Vincent of Beauvais
A Dominican theologian and encyclopedist born around 1190, he wrote a comprehensive history of the world up to the year 1264 called the Miroir historial (Mirror of History). He also wrote works of instruction for the French nobility, finishing one for princes and one for the education of noble children.
1215 - 1215
Fourth Lateran Council of 1215
Over 1200 ecclesiastical officials attended this council, which is often considered a high point of the medieval European papacy. Over 71 separate topics were covered at the Council, although most concern internal church reforms (like making sure everyone heard the same mass and that priests and monks stay sober, chaste, and educated). The Council also discussed dress, with instructions on how priests, monks, Jews, and others were to dress within European realms (four sections concern Jews in Europe). The final section is a call for crusaders to assemble and invade Jerusalem and Cairo. The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) failed in both these arenas.
1250 - 1250
Laexdala Saga
This epic, written around 1250, records the migration of a family from Sweden to Iceland and the experiences of generations that settled the lands and sorted out both real-life problems and ones that are more superstitious and fantastical. A primary issue of Laexdala Saga is how rights and property are passed down to future generations, and this concern is a prevalent topic of medieval stories and mythologies.
For more information on the geography and history represented in the Icelandic sagas, see the interactive Icelandic Saga Map: http://sagamap.hi.is/is/
1200 - 1500
700 - 1513
Kilwa Kisiwani
A fortified island off the southeastern coast of Africa (part of Tanzania today), the Muslim rulers here reigned over the vast coastal area from the 8th century until 1513, when competing powers in Oman and from Portuguese colonizers arose in the region and competed for control of the island kingdom’s territories. The archaeological remains of a congregational mosque and a palace (the Husuni Kubwa, or “Great Fort”) still dominate the landscape and testify to the might of this sultanate in the Indian Ocean world.
1100 - 1530
Inca Empire
Located in the Andean mountains of Peru, the Inca created the largest pre-Columbian empire, beginning around 1100. The lands of the Inca Empire were closely interlinked through a network of about 25,000 miles (40,000 km) of roads that were used, in part, to move agricultural produce and other goods throughout the Andean region and beyond. When the Inca Empire – which they called Tawantinsuyu, or Land of the Four Quarters – conquered and united 3,400 miles (5,470 km) of Andean territory, its leaders adopted and built upon pre-existing traditions of agriculture and artistic production from a variety of conquered cultures. Quipu cords are evidence of sophisticated Incan record-keeping. Made from animal hair or cotton and dyed a variety of colors (which held clear meanings for users but have not been deciphered by modern scholars), strings were wound, wrapped, and knotted in complex formulations that likely combined numerical and narrative values. Easily portable, a quipu could be used for accounting, census-taking, recording tribute payments, and more. In 1583 the Spanish declared that all quipus had to be destroyed, on the theory that they were idolatrous objects. But the Spanish also incorporated quipus into their colonial regimes of governance and religion. This contradiction ensured some continuation (or reformulation) of the practice in Peru until the nineteenth century.
Quipu cords are evidence of sophisticated Incan record-keeping.
1206 - 1526
Delhi Sultanate
The five Persian-speaking Muslim sultanates (so called after the ruling sultan) that ruled in portions of the Indian subcontinent and its environs. These included the Mamluk dynasty of greater Egypt and Central Asia (1206–1290), the Turko-Afghan Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Turko-Indian Tughlaq dynasty (1320-1414), the Sayyid dynasty of Multan (Punjab, Pakistan; 1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty also of Punjab origin (1451–1526).
1207 - 1273
Rumi
Islamic Sufi mystic. A well-educated and highly prolific writer, we have over 75,000 verses today and his poems are memorized and recited around the world. A teacher and spiritual leader, Rumi was active within his communities, settling disputes and encouraging peaceful resolution to conflict. Love and emotion are central themes to Rumi’s poetry; he focused on the internal movement toward God and the love he experienced when his separation from God ended.
1215 - 1294
Kublai Khan
Grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai went on to establish his own court in mainland China as the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). He expanded his Mongolian patrimony eastward, attacking the Song dynasty beginning in 1268. His conquest of Korea, with campaigns there between 1230 and 1270, in in Java and Burma in southeast Asia, and his Japanese campaigns, created a large empire in Eastern Asia. He attacked Japan in 1274 and 1281 but was rebuffed by Japanese armies and severe weather. His empire was multi-ethnic: His court was outwardly staffed with Chinese officials, but Mongolians made up much of his inner circle, and he placed Muslims from the west in financial positions.
1226 - 1680
Mongolian Khanates
Conflict over the matter of succession in the Mongolian khans begun in 1259 and accelerated over the next few years, until the huge expanse of territory conquered by the Mongols broke up into four distinct states (called khanates): The Golden Horde (ca. 1242-1502) ruled in eastern Europe and Russia; the Ilkhanate (ca. 1256-1335) in the region of modern Iraq, Iran, and Turkey; the Chagatai Khanate (ca. 1225-1680s) in central Asia; and the Yuan dynasty (ca. 1271-1368) established by Kublai Khan in China.
1230 - 1230
Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti
Iraqi painter Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti lived around 1230s. A illuminator and calligrapher, his work was both realistic and stylistic, with elaborate figures and colors. He depicted merchant ships to illustrate the Maqamat al-Hariri (The Assemblies of al-Hariri), a series of fifty anecdotes that take the form of fables, satires, romances, and proverbs. Al-Wasiti is often praised for his attention to the racial diversity of the Islamicate and Indian Ocean worlds, as well as for his interest in textiles, architecture, and engineering.
1230 - 1670
Empire of Mali
Mali became the dominant power in western Africa after the fall of the Ghana empire. From 1200 to about 1600, the Mali empire controlled the wealthy salt and gold mines of the region, trading across Africa and into the Mediterranean. Its capital city, Niani, has yet to be uncovered, but Islamic writers tell of well-structured city with wide avenues, many people, and central markets. The “mansa” or military emperor governed through a bureaucracy filled with nobles and scholars. The first emperor, Sundiata, came to power in 1230, after defeating a rivaling nation for control of Mali. His exploits are found in the Epic of Sundiata, a story that tells of the young emperor’s childhood and rise to power. When Mansu Musa added the region of Gao to his empire, he gained the wealthy copper mines of that region, and an empire larger, at the time, than any other outside of China. The city of Timbuktu became an important economic, religious, and intellectual center, remaining so even as the might of Mali declined in the 1500s.
1254 - 1324
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a member of a Venetian merchant family accustomed to trading in western Asia. In 1271 he joined his father and uncle on their second journey, which resulted in a seventeen-year stay in Mongol China, diplomatic work on behalf of the Great Khan, Kublai (1215-94), and a return to Venice via the Indian Ocean route. Marco Polo was lucky to have a paiza, an official pass that allowed the bearer to travel along the roads of the Mongol Empire freely and to obtain food, shelter, and fresh horses at government relay stations. Typically reserved for government envoys and officials, paizas were also granted to foreign merchants in order to attract their business. Marco Polo left a gold paiza to his heirs in his will.
This paiza, in iron inlaid with silver, contains writing in the Mongol language warning that the khan’s edict of protection for the bearer must be respected. Yuan dynasty (1271 – 1368).
1260 - 1260
Ayn Jalut
Battle between the Mongol khan Hulegu and the sultan of Egypt, Qutuz. Their two armies met in Palestine and the Egyptian armies routed the Mongolian troops. This surprising defeat halted Mongol expansion westward. The Egyptian Mamluks occupied most of Syria and surrounded the small coastal outposts of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (centered on Acre since the loss of Jerusalem in 1187) and the crusader-held County of Tripoli to the north.
1271 - 1368
Yuan dynasty in China
Empire begun by Kublai Khan, it stretched from the western steppes north to Korea. Split into 12 provinces, Kublai filled his bureaucracy with Chinese servants and Mongolian leaders. A fairly tolerant regime, the Yuan dynasty allowed for multiple religions (like Islam and Christianity) to be openly practiced. The empire also outlawed foot-binding for girls, although the practice continued into the 20th century, until outlawed by Mao Zedong in 1911 and formally abolished in 1949. For the first time in 300 years, Kublai’s government also halted civil service examinations. Trade increased under the Yuan and the economy boomed with the increase in paper money and infrastructure.
1279 - 1333
Al-Nuwayri
The Egyptian historian and writer lived during the Mamluk sultanate. He wrote The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition, an encyclopedic work intended to record all thinking; the work took him 18 years to complete and was over 30 volumes at his death. With entries range from anatomy and history to zoology, it held references from as far afield as the Indo-Malaysian archipelago.
1284 - 1284
Kazimir Big Mosque
Known as the first Islamic mosque in Tamil Nadu, this mosque combines the elements of both traditional Muslim and Indian architecture. Built in 1284, the mosque has minarets and a domed center, along with scalloped edging reminiscent of other Indian worship centers. The mosque itself could hold up to 1200 people for services and a large complex soon surrounded the central worship area.
Kazimir Big Mosque built in the thirteenth century in Tamil Nadu, India.
1300 - 1521
Aztec Empire
Mesoamerican empire centered in modern-day Mexico City. Aztecs were the Nahua-speaking Mexica who ruled across Mexico. Their civilization reportedly arose from Aztlán, generally believed to have been an island (today associated with Mexcaltitán de Uribe in the state of Nayarit, dating to the eleventh century). Their capital later moved to Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City), which was built on an island in the former Lake Texcoco.
Carved in the Piedra del Sol or the Stone of the Sun are figures of the days, weeks, and months of the Aztec calendar. Etched in the central disk is the name of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, who reigned between 1502 and 1520. It weighs 54,210 pounds, about 27 tons.
1304 - 1369
Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta was born in Morocco into an educated family of scholars and judges. As a young man he studied law and at 21 chose to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. On this first trip, he kept a diary of his travels and gained a love of travel. He spent the next 30 years traveling the Islamicate world, including in Mongolian and African empires, and writing about his adventures. Traversing about 75,000 miles over the course of his life, his journals give us intimate details of people, places, and cultures from India to Africa.
1312 - 1337
Mansa Musa
The tenth ruler of the Empire of Mali, Musa was emperor (“mansa”) from about 1312 to 1337. The Mali Empire had grown rich and powerful within West Africa by conquering cities and regions, many of which were connected to the gold trade. A descendant of the great king Sundiata (for whom the epic Sundiata is name), he is often referred to as the richest man who ever lived. Musa’s fame, both during and after the Middle Ages, comes from his religious pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. Traveling through Cairo, Mansu proved his generosity and piety by giving away vast wealth; in fact, his gifts of gold in Cairo flooded the market and caused a decline in gold’s value there that last over 12 years. A pious Muslim, in addition to his pilgrimage, he had mosques built across his vast empire, from the Great Mosque at Timbuktu to the brick mosque in Gao. A proponent of education, Mansu rebuilt the center at Sankore, turning it into the first university in West Africa and inviting scholars from across the Islamicate to visit and teach. With a vast library of over 500,000 manuscripts, the university focused on both Islamic teaching and liberal arts (grammar, mathematics, history, and chemistry, among others). Through his strong administration, focus on education, and piety, Mansu Musa ensured that the empire of Mali would survive.
Mansa Musa is one of numerous rulers depicted on the Catalan Atlas, a map of Afro-Eurasia. He is shown holding a golden orb.
1326 - 1420
Imagawa Sadayo
A Japanese general and poet, Sadayo was learned in the writings of Buddhism and Confucianism and trained in strategy and horse-back combat. He also cultivated a personality of lyrical verse, wrote a travel diary (the Michiyukiburi or Travelings), and committed his life to meditation as a Buddhist monk, taking the name Ryoshun.
1330 - 1330
Heike Monogatari
This Japanese epic, completed prior to 1330, focuses much of its energy on the relationships and intrigues of courtiers, many of whom were also warriors. The tale details the battles and conspiracies between the Heike (Taira) and Genji (Minamoto) clans for control of the empire from the 1170s to 1190s. The Heike is a tragic history of a failed clan, showing the Japanese ideals of impermanence and fate.
1337 - 1453
Hundred Years’ War
This civil war in France pitted the English and French kings against each other for control of the continent. The primary players in this lengthy political skirmish were the House of Plantagenet in England and the House of Valois in France. Both vied for titular and terrestrial claims to the crown for rule over land on the French mainland and beyond. The Plantagenets forged alliances with the pope in Rome, the Spanish kingdom of Navarre, and the kingdom of Portugal, while the Valois formed pacts with the kingdoms of Scotland, Bohemia (in central Europe), Castille and Aragon in Spain, and the Republic of Genoa (in Italy).
1343 - 1416
Julian of Norwich
Born in 1343, just prior to the Black Death’s arrival in England, Julian lived her entire life in the English city of Norwich. After receiving a vision of Christ’s passion, Julian chose to become an anchoress (one who withdraws from the world to focus on prayer and meditation) and secluded herself in a small room attached to the side of a church. This vision, or Showing as she called it, described the Passion of Christ in intimate detail. Educated well enough to read and write in Middle English, she recorded her visions in two redactions: a short text, written soon after the visions, and a long text, written years after her enclosure.
A representation of Julian of Norwich, from a church in England dedicated to her.
1347 - 1380
Catherine of Siena
Catherine had a vision of a mystical marriage with Christ when she was fifteen, where she vowed her virginity to him. Her family resisted, even locking her up and physically punishing her. She taught herself to read and write and began writing of her visions, which she continued to have throughout her short life. At twenty-three, a vision prompted her to care for Italy’s poor and ill, and she became widely known for her patient skill and her gift of teaching theological ideas while nursing the sick. She wrote over 400 letters, including letters chastising the bishops and the pope for their actions.
1350 - 1350
Janabai
Janabai, a Bhakti poet, died in 1350. Born into the lowest caste of her society, she was soon a servant within a household of poets. She was nursemaid and servant to the poet Namdev, her young employer, who encouraged her works. She wrote over 340 poems, which survived because of the fame of her young charge. Her poetry denied the lowliness of her caste, showing that through her emotional union with Vishnu she lost all sense of ego and completely erased herself to become one with god.
1360 - 1430
Andrei Rublev
Rublev was a Russian icon painter. He was born around 1360 and died sometime around 1430. He is most famous for his paintings of Mary holding the Christ child and the Holy Trinity. His work is considered a high point of Russian art and his frescos, miniatures, illuminations, and icons exemplified Russian ideals on art and religion. At once otherworldly and mundane, his works evoke the introspection of Russian spirituality with the traditions of Byzantine iconography.
The Theotokos of Vladimir, ca. 1405, by Andrei Rublev.
1364 - 1430
Christine de Pizan
The first European woman we know of who earned a living as a writer. She often acted as her own scribe and illuminator, frequently dedicating the books to patrons and illustrating them with beautiful portraits in lapis blue, vermillion, and gold leaf. As a well-read and well-connected intellectual, Christine engaged with the issues of her day, specifically objecting to and reframing the casual and vulgar way men presented women in literary and theological texts. She countered viciously sexist texts with her own allegories, including The Book of the City of Ladies, which she published in 1405. She died around 1430.
Christine de Pizan presents The Book of the Queen (ca. 1410 – 1414) to its namesake, Isabeau of Bavaria.
1368 - 1644
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty took over after the collapse of the Yuan emperors. The Ming encouraged strict class systems, restricted Central Asian trade, erected fortresses at their borders and discouraged the kind of long-distance journeys that had been possible through the Mongol yam and paiza systems. Ming emperors focused more on agriculture than on commercial markets and conducted foreign exchange through the traditional tributary system. By the fifteenth century, the Yongle emperor was sending Zheng He on expeditionary voyages throughout the southern seas. The court of the Yongle emperor Zhu Di of early Ming China had close ties to Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, which provided manuscripts for the Chinese emperors who desired accurate and complete translations of the major texts of Buddhism. Surviving manuscripts from the reign of the Yongle and subsequent Xuande emperor (Zhu Zhanji; r. 1426–1435), some of which were enclosed by such lacquered boards, may have featured block-print illustrations, while others were lavishly decorated with costly materials and golden calligraphy.
A pair of sutra covers once preserved part of an edition of the 108 volumes of a Tibetan Buddhist text – likely including the Prajnaparamita Sutra – produced in Beijing, China during the Ming Dynasty.
1370 - 1405
Timur
Known as Tamerlane in European sources, Timur was born in Transoxiana (in present-day Uzbekistan) and eventually ruled over the Chagatai Khanate. One of the last great nomadic conquerors, Timur built a large empire based on that of Chinggis Khan, but his empire did not outlast his death. A patron of the arts and of Islam, Timur initiated the Timurid Renaissance, where art, architecture, and education expanded. Timur corresponded with the African scholar ibn Khaldun, who wrote of the Mongol leader and a history of the Mongols. Many architectural projects were begun under his rule and the rebuilding of Samarkand with Persian styling can still be seen today.
1371 - 1433
Zheng He
Muslim-Chinese admiral and bureaucrat, Zheng He was sent by emperor Yongle to explore and trade within the southern seas. He commanded hundreds of massive ships (the “Treasure Fleet”), between 1405 and 1433 and captained seven voyages to Vietnam, Java, Sumatra, Sri Lanka, southern India, the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and along the eastern coast of Africa. His fleets were comprised of hundreds of massive ships, which carried thousands of sailors and thousands of tons of Chinese products.
1402 - 1424
Yongle Emperor
Yongle was the third ruler of the Ming dynasty. Civil conflict at his father’s death caused a three year war. At Yongle’s ascension, he executed thousands who had supported his rival and nephew. Worried about new civil wars, Yongle staffed his closest advisors with eunuchs, believing their loyalty would only be to him. Under his reign, the capital moved to Beijing and work on the Forbidden City began. The center of the bureaucracy and of the imperial family, the Forbidden City had over 980 buildings and took more than a million workers 14 years to build. By 1406, Yongle sent Zheng He and the Treasure Fleet on diplomatic and economic trade voyages throughout the southern seas. He also invaded Vietnam and several areas of Mongolia, dying on campaign in 1424.
1412 - 1431
Joan of Arc
Joan was a French peasant born around 1412 who believed God had chosen her to end the war with England (of the Hundred Years War). Joan was able to convince the crowned prince of France (the dauphin Charles) of her visions. French troops rallied with the idea that God had chosen the French and the soldiers at the besieged city of Orleans defeated the army of English and Burgundians. She was later arrested and tried for witchcraft and cross-dressing after leading French troops in battle.
1440
Gutenberg's Printing Press
The invention of the printing press is a marker of the end of the medieval period in Europe. In the 1440s in Mainz, Germany, Johannes Gutenberg synthesized a variety of mechanical innovations into a successful, moveable-type press. Until that time, reading material of any kind was copied by hand, making it unlikely that there would be many copies of any one text, and it was impossible for copies to be identical. Because of the labor involved and the expense of prepared parchment writing surfaces, manuscripts were rare and belonged to the upper classes. Gutenberg’s invention revolutionized communication and made it possible for popular movements to gain power, most notably the demands for Church reforms like those that began in late fourteenth-century England.
This woodcut is the earliest known illustration of a printer’s shop (ca. 1500) and is an image from the danse macabre artistic genre of late medieval Europe, a response to the massive devastation created by the fourteenth-century plague.
1460 - 1524
Vasco da Gama
Portuguese explorer, born around 1460, who rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached India from Portugal in 1498. 4 ships set out for India and only 2 and 55 men returned (partly due to de Gama’s hubris and his ignoring of local knowledge of the monsoons), but de Gama returned with enough goods to ensure continued Portuguese travel around Africa. He created the possibility of a sea route to India as an alternative to overland travel and was named “Governor of India” by the Portuguese king. Writer Luis de Camões created an epic of his adventures, The Lusiads, which have become a Portuguese national epic.
1464 - 1591
Songhai Empire
Centered on the bend in the Niger river, the Songhai people sat between great empires to the north and west. Conquered by Mansu Musa’s armies around 1325, princes of Gao were held as political hostages by the Mali empire. At Musa’s death, the two princes made their escape and returned to Gao. As Mali lost influence throughout the region, the Songhai kingdom filled the power vacuum. Sunni Ali, king from 1464 to 1492, captured the cities of Timbuktu and Djenne and created a navy that sailed up and down the Niger river. A syncretic kingdom, the Songhai held Muslims, animists, Christians, and others within their society, but rarely were these peaceful coexistences. Songhai emperors also had dealing with the Portuguese along the coast, and trade extended both west and north. The empire fell to the Moroccans in 1591.
1502
Cantino Planisphere
A representative (or spy) of Duke Ercole I d’Este (ruled 1471—1505) of Ferrara, Cantino smuggled a seven-foot-two-inches-long world map on parchment from Portugal to Italy. Known as the Cantino Planisphere—which is a projection of the earth on a flat or planar surface—this map records impressive details about the recently-encountered (for Europeans that is) coastline of Brazil (reached by Cabral in 1500), the Caribbean islands (known to Christopher Columbus from 1492 onward), Florida Peninsula (Ponce de Leon waded ashore in 1513), and Newfoundland (ventured to by Gaspar Corte-Real by 1501) on one extreme, and the land of India and the “spice” and “jewel” islands in Southeast Asia on the other.
The Cantino Planisphere, 1502.
1518 - 1593
Li Shizhen
Ming dynasty physician whose writings covered acupuncture, pharmacology, and medicinal tinctures. His major work, Compendium of Materia Medica, took over 25 years to compile and write. With over 1800 entries, he sought to correct older inaccurate manuals and add to the knowledge of medicine. Detailed and organized, he sought to correct ill health and prevent disease. 6 copies of his work remain today; one in the US Library of Congress is accessible online.
1546
Mirabai
The most famous of the female Bhakti saints of the medieval period. Born into a royal household, Mirabai also rejected the class of her birth. At the death of her husband, Mirabai wandered the streets, caring for the poor. She declared Krishna (an avatar of Vishnu) as her spouse and that no mortal man had power over her. Her poems speak to the longing Mirabai has for her eternal husband, a desire to join fully with the universal self of the god and to lose her personal self in the process.
