Middle Ages
Third Crusade (1189-1192): Richard the Lionheart and Saladin
The crusaders recovered Acre and the coast from Tyre to Jaffa but not Jerusalem; the Treaty of Jaffa (1192) allowed Christian pilgrims to visit the city.
Region
Middle East
Middle Ages
Battle of Arsuf (1191): Richard I Defeats Saladin's Army
Crusader victory; Saladin's army failed to stop Richard's march and the crusaders reached Jaffa.
Middle Ages
Al-Jazari's Book of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (1206)
A richly illustrated treatise describing about 50 machines, the most detailed surviving record of medieval mechanical engineering in the Islamic world.
Middle Ages
Mongol Conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire (1219-1221)
The Khwarazmian Empire collapsed; its great cities were sacked and Central Asia and eastern Iran came under Mongol rule.
Middle Ages
Sixth Crusade (1228-1229): Frederick II Regains Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth were returned to Christian rule by the Treaty of Jaffa, with a truce of ten years, while the Temple Mount stayed under Muslim control.
Middle Ages
Battle of La Forbie (1244): Crusader Defeat near Gaza
Decisive Egyptian and Khwarazmian victory; the field army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed and its Syrian Muslim allies routed.
Middle Ages
Rumi and Shams of Tabriz: The Mystic Poet of Konya (1244)
Rumi turned from a conventional scholar into a mystic poet whose Divan and Masnavi became classics of Persian literature and inspired the Mevlevi Sufi order.
Middle Ages
Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517): Slave Soldiers Who Ruled Egypt
A military state that defended the Middle East against Mongols and crusaders, until the Ottoman conquest of 1516-1517.
Middle Ages
Ilkhanate: Hulagu Khan's Mongol Realm in Persia (1256)
A Mongol dynasty ruled Iran and Iraq for about eighty years, converted to Islam in 1295 and broke apart after 1335.
Middle Ages
Siege of Baghdad (1258): Mongols End the Abbasid Caliphate
Mongol victory; Baghdad was sacked, the caliph executed and the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad ended.
Middle Ages
Baybars: Mamluk Sultan and Conqueror of Crusader Castles
Baybars consolidated the Mamluk Sultanate, took many crusader strongholds and held the Mongols at the Euphrates.
Middle Ages
Battle of Ain Jalut (1260): Mamluks Halt the Mongol Advance
Decisive Mamluk victory; the Mongol commander Kitbuqa was killed and Mongol rule in Syria collapsed.