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Muslims under Umayyad caliphs began to conquer land in North Africa, Spain, and places around Persia.
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The Muslim army crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain and made their way north to France. Spain flourished as a center of Muslim Civilization.
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The Muslims were defeated in France at the battle of Tours. Their advance into Western Europe was stopped.
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Discontented Muslims found a leader in Abu al-Abbas, who captured Damascus in 750. One of his generals invited members of the defeated Umayyad family to a banquet and killed them all.
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Abbassid control over the Arab empire fragmented. In other muslim places, independent dynasties ruled seperate muslim states.
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The Seljuk Turks migrated into the Middle East from Central Asia. They adopted Islam and built a large empire across the Fertile Crescent.
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A Seljuk sultan controlled Baghdad, but he left the Abbassid caliph as a figurehead.
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Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade. Crusaders were Christians who went to capture Jerusalem.
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After a long, bloody siege, Crusaders captured Jerusalem. For 150 years, the city went back and forth between Muslims and Christians.
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The Muslim general Saladin ousted Christians from Jerusalem.
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Genghiz Khan led the Mongols out of Central Asia across Persia and Mesoptamia. Mongol armies returned again and again.
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The end of the Abbassid dynasty. Hulagu, Genghiz’s grandson, burned and looted Baghdad, killing the last Abbassid caliph.
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Tamerlane, another mongol leader, led his armies into the Middle East. His intentions were to conquer Muslim and non-Muslim lands. His victorious armies overran Persia and Mesopotamia before invading Russia and India.
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Christian forces had been fighting to reconquer Spain, and seized the final Muslim stronghold.
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Christian forces had been fighting to reconquer Spain, and seized the final Muslim stronghold.
