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Please select a historical
period:
25
years ago / 50 years ago / 80
years ago / 125 years ago /
150 years ago
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years ago / 700 years ago
/ 1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago / 2,000
years ago / 3,000 years ago
/ 4,000 years ago / 5,000
years ago / 10,000 years ago
700
Years Ago in West Asia
The
great doctor and philosopher Sheikh-al-Rais Ibn-e-Sina was born
in 980 AD in Kharmaitan. He taught himself medicine, and became
such a well known doctor that Ibn-e-Sina was given money to
run school of medicine in the Persian city of Isfahan. He died
while on a journey from Isfahan to Hamadan at the age of 58
in 1036. His fame even reached Europe, where the name Ibn-e-Sina
came to be written down as Avicenna.
The Battle of Manzikert, in 1071, saw the smashing defeat of
the Eastern Roman or Byzantine army by the Seljuk Turks (also
spelled Saljuq). The Seljuks were the most important of the
various Turkish clans that had moved into West Asia. Manzikert
saw the end of Roman control over Anatolia, the region which
today still makes up the modern nation of Turkey.
When first known to history, the Turks were a varied group of
nomadic people living in what is now Russian Siberia. The Huns
may have been Turkish. The earliest known writing in a Turkish
tongue dates from the 8th century AD; found in the Orhon inscriptions
near Lake Baikal. Turkish speakers are a very ethnically diverse
group of people, some with red hair and blue eyes, while others
have brown skin, dark hair and long noses, and others have more
Mongolian looking features. Place names in Turkish, sprinkled
in a wide belt from central Mongolia and western China across
inner Asia through Iran, the Caucasus and Black Sea regions,
and Turkey, into the Balkans as far as Yugoslavia, show the
route of migration and expansion of the Turks in past centuries.
The Mongols under Chingghis Khan attack West Asia. In two campaigns,
between 1219 and 1225, the Turko-Persian empire of Khwarizm
was completely destroyed. It was the turn of the Seljuk Turks
next, and in 1243 their army was defeated at the Battle of Kosedag.
In 1258, Baghdad, one of the largest cities in the world with
one million people, is destroyed.
Thereafter the Seljuk state was tributary to the Mongols, who,
following a local rebellion, kept troops and a governor in Anatolia.
Persia was ruled by the Il- Khans, which simply means "the
rulers". This was a Mongol dynasty, a branch of Chingghis
Khan's family who had converted to Islam. Most Mongols followed
their own native religion, a form of nature worship, or were
followers of Buddha.
The Mongols seem unstoppable--until they meet the fearless Mamluk
warriors of Egypt. In 1260, the Egyptian Mamluks stop the Mongol
advance cold at the Battle of Ain Jalut. The main strength of
the Egyptian army was based on a warrior caste of Turk and Circassian
slaves, called Mamluks, who fought as armoured cavalry. As with
the Germans in the ancient Roman army or the Mexica Aztecs in
the Toltec army, the Mamluks through their control of military
power took over political control, and ruled Egypt for almost
300 years from about 1250.
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25
years ago / 50 years ago / 80
years ago / 125 years ago /
150 years ago
250 years ago / 400
years ago / 700 years ago
/ 1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago / 2,000
years ago / 3,000 years ago
/ 4,000 years ago / 5,000
years ago / 10,000 years ago
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