1.
Franciscans
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The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from the Pope in 1209. The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope disallowed ownership of property, the austerity was meant to emulate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties, Saint Clare, under Franciss guidance, founded the Poor Clares in 1212, which remains a Second Order of the Franciscans. The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in final revision of the Rule in 1223, the degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions. The Order of Friars Minor, previously known as the Observant branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the Capuchins and Conventuals. The Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases, Franciscans are sometimes referred to as minorites or greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, the name of original order, Friars Minor, means lesser brothers, and stems from Francis of Assisis rejection of extravagance. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant, but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully. Francis adopted of the tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order. Those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. First Order The First Order or the Order of Friars Minor are commonly called simply the Franciscans and this Order is a mendicant religious order of men, some of whom trace their origin to Francis of Assisi. Their official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, St. Francis thus referred to his followers as Fraticelli, meaning Little Brothers. Franciscan brothers are informally called friars or the Minorites and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. These are The Order of Friars Minor, known as the Observants, most commonly simply called Franciscan friars, official name, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin or simply Capuchins, official name, Friars Minor Capuchin. The Conventual Franciscans or Minorites, official name, Friars Minor Conventual, Second Order The Second Order, most commonly called Poor Clares in English-speaking countries, consists of religious sisters. The order is called the Order of St. Clare, but in the century, prior to 1263, this order was referred to as The Poor Ladies, The Poor Enclosed Nuns
2.
Marco Polo
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He learned the mercantile trade from his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, who travelled through Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time, the three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, returning after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa, Marco was imprisoned and dictated his stories to a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a merchant, married. He died in 1324 and was buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Venice, Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China, but he was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. This book inspired Christopher Columbus and many other travellers, there is a substantial literature based on Polos writings, he also influenced European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map. Marco Polo was born in 1254 in Venice Republic and his exact date and place of birth are archivally unknown. Some historians mentioned that he was born on September 15 but that date is not endorsed by mainstream scholarship, Marco Polos birthplace is generally considered Venice, but also varies between Constantinople, and the island of Korčula. There is dispute as to whether the Polo family is of Venetian origin, the first recorded Polo is Venetian Domenico Polo who was mentioned in 971 regarding the prohibition of trade with the Arabs. Later other Polos were also mentioned in the service of the realm, whether they were related with the family of Marco Polo is uncertain, but this could indicate that his ancestors travelled between Venice and Dalmatia. Some of the first indications of where his family originated and were resident come from Venetian documents and manuscripts. Some scholars argued that this account could go along with the note from Il Milione that his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, the non-Venetian i. e. Sanuto also mentioned a captain from Korčula, Antonio di Polo. Moule cited two early 17th century Venetian manuscripts questi ueneno de dalmatia, Polo questi uene de Dalmatia, scholars etymologically argued that his family name derives from Latin Paulus, the name of a certain bird species, or like Albert tSerstevens considered - from Eastern origin. However, the habitat of the shorebird is non-existent on Korčula, the surname Polo seems related with other widespread Dalmatian surnames. The lack of evidence makes the Korčula theory as a specific birthplace strongly disputed, in 1168, his great-uncle, Marco Polo, borrowed money and commanded a ship in Constantinople. His grandfather, Andrea Polo of the parish of San Felice, had three sons, Maffeo, yet another Marco, and the travellers father Niccolò and this genealogy, described by Ramusio, is not universally accepted as there is no additional evidence to support it. His father, Niccolò Polo, a merchant, traded with the Near East, becoming wealthy, Niccolò and his brother Maffeo set off on a trading voyage before Marcos birth. In 1260, Niccolò and Maffeo, while residing in Constantinople, then the capital of the Latin Empire, foresaw a political change, they liquidated their assets into jewels and moved away. According to The Travels of Marco Polo, they passed through much of Asia, and met with Kublai Khan and their decision to leave Constantinople proved timely
3.
Ibn Battuta
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He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in his Travels. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands and his journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Middle East, India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. He claimed descent from a Berber tribe known as the Lawata, as a young man he would have studied at a Sunni Maliki madhhab, the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. Maliki Muslims requested Ibn Battuta serve as their religious judge as he was from an area where it was practiced. In June 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn Battuta set off from his hometown on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca and he would not see Morocco again for twenty-four years. So I braced my resolution to quit my dear ones, female and male and my parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. He travelled to Mecca overland, following the North African coast across the sultanates of Abd al-Wadid and Hafsid, the route took him through Tlemcen, Béjaïa, and then Tunis, where he stayed for two months. For safety, Ibn Battuta usually joined a caravan to reduce the risk of being robbed and he took a bride in the town of Sfax, the first in a series of marriages that would feature in his travels. In the early spring of 1326, after a journey of over 3,500 km, Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of Alexandria and he met two ascetic pious men in Alexandria. One was Sheikh Burhanuddin who is supposed to have foretold the destiny of Ibn Battuta as a world traveller saying It seems to me that you are fond of foreign travel and you will visit my brother Fariduddin in India, Rukonuddin in Sind and Burhanuddin in China. Another pious man Sheikh Murshidi interpreted the meaning of a dream of Ibn Battuta that he was meant to be a world traveller and he spent several weeks visiting sites in the area, and then headed inland to Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate and an important city. After spending about a month in Cairo, he embarked on the first of many detours within the safety of Mamluk territory. Of the three routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-travelled, which involved a journey up the Nile valley. Upon approaching the town, however, a local rebellion forced him to turn back, Ibn Battuta returned to Cairo and took a second side trip, this time to Mamluk-controlled Damascus. During his first trip he had encountered a man who prophesied that he would only reach Mecca by travelling through Syria. Without this help many travellers would be robbed and murdered, after spending the Muslim month of Ramadan in Damascus, he joined a caravan travelling the 1,300 km south to Medina, site of the tomb of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. After four days in the town, he journeyed on to Mecca, rather than returning home, Ibn Battuta instead decided to continue on, choosing as his next destination the Ilkhanate, a Mongol Khanate, to the northeast. On 17 November 1326, following a month spent in Mecca, the group headed north to Medina and then, travelling at night, turned northeast across the Najd plateau to Najaf, on a journey that lasted about two weeks
4.
Flanders (county)
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The County of Flanders was a historic territory in the Low Countries. From 862 onwards the Counts of Flanders were one of the twelve peers of the Kingdom of France. For centuries their estates around the cities of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres formed one of the most affluent regions in Europe, up to 1477, the area under French suzerainty was located west of the Scheldt River and was called Royal Flanders. Aside from this the Counts of Flanders from the 11th century on also held land east of the river as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, an area called Imperial Flanders. Part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1384, the county was removed from French to Imperial control after the Peace of Madrid in 1526. In 1795 the remaining territory within the Austrian Netherlands was incorporated by the French First Republic, the former County of Flanders, except for French Flanders, is the only part of the medieval French kingdom that is not part of modern-day France. Flanders and Flemish are likely derived from the Frisian *flāndra and *flāmisk, the Flemish people are first mentioned in the biography of Saint Eligius, the Vita sancti Eligii. This work was written before 684, but only known since 725 and this work mentions the Flanderenses, who lived in Flandris. The geography of the historic County of Flanders only partially overlaps with present-day region of Flanders in Belgium, though there it extends beyond West Flanders. Some of the county is now part of France and the Netherlands. The arms of the County of Flanders were allegedly created by Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191, as a result, the arms of the county live on as arms of the Flemish Community. It is said that Philip of Alsace brought the flag with him from the Holy Land, where in 1177 he supposedly conquered it from a Saracen knight. The simple fact that the lion appeared on his personal seal since 1163, in reality Philip was following a West-European trend. In the same period also appeared in the arms of Brabant, Luxembourg, Holland, Limburg. It is curious that the lion as a symbol was mostly used in border territories. It was in all likelihood a way of showing independence from the emperor, in Europe the lion had been a well-known figure since Roman times, through works such as the fables of Aesop. The future county of Flanders had been inhabited since prehistory, during the Iron Age the Kemmelberg formed an important Celtic settlement. During the times of Julius Caesar, the inhabitants were part of the Belgae, for Flanders in specific these were the Menapii, the Morini, the Nervii and the Atrebates
5.
Mongol Empire
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The Mongol Empire existed during the 13th and 14th centuries and was the largest contiguous land empire in history. The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of tribes in the Mongol homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan. The empire grew rapidly under the rule of him and his descendants, the Toluids prevailed after a bloody purge of Ögedeid and Chagataid factions, but disputes continued even among the descendants of Tolui. Kublai successfully took power, but civil war ensued as Kublai sought unsuccessfully to control of the Chagatayid and Ögedeid families. The Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 marked the point of the Mongol conquests and was the first time a Mongol advance had ever been beaten back in direct combat on the battlefield. In 1304, the three western khanates briefly accepted the suzerainty of the Yuan dynasty, but it was later taken by the Han Chinese Ming dynasty in 1368. What is referred to in English as the Mongol Empire was called the Ikh Mongol Uls, in the 1240s, one of Genghiss descendants, Güyük Khan, wrote a letter to Pope Innocent IV which used the preamble Dalai Khagan of the great Mongolian state. After the succession war between Kublai Khan and his brother Ariq Böke, Ariq limited Kublais power to the part of the empire. Kublai officially issued an edict on December 18,1271 to name the country Great Yuan to establish the Yuan dynasty. Some sources state that the full Mongolian name was Dai Ön Yehe Monggul Ulus, the area around Mongolia, Manchuria, and parts of North China had been controlled by the Liao dynasty since the 10th century. In 1125, the Jin dynasty founded by the Jurchens overthrew the Liao dynasty, in the 1130s the Jin dynasty rulers, known as the Golden Kings, successfully resisted the Khamag Mongol confederation, ruled at the time by Khabul Khan, great-grandfather of Temujin. The Mongolian plateau was occupied mainly by five powerful tribal confederations, Keraites, Khamag Mongol, Naiman, Mergid, khabuls successor was Ambaghai Khan, who was betrayed by the Tatars, handed over to the Jurchen, and executed. The Mongols retaliated by raiding the frontier, resulting in a failed Jurchen counter-attack in 1143, in 1147, the Jin somewhat changed their policy, signing a peace treaty with the Mongols and withdrawing from a score of forts. The Mongols then resumed attacks on the Tatars to avenge the death of their late khan, the Jin and Tatar armies defeated the Mongols in 1161. During the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century and it is thought that as a result, a rapid increase in the number of war horses and other livestock significantly enhanced Mongol military strength. Known during his childhood as Temujin, Genghis Khan was the son of a Mongol chieftain, when he was young he was from one of Yesugis orphaned and deserted families, he rose very rapidly by working with Toghrul Khan of the Kerait. Kurtait was the most powerful Mongol leader during this time and was given the Chinese title Wang which means Prince, Temujin went to war with Wang Khan. After Temujin defeated Wang Khan he gave himself the name Genghis Khan and he then enlarged his Mongol state under himself and his kin
6.
Louis IX of France
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Louis IX, commonly known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. Louis was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the death of his father Louis VIII the Lion, although his mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled the kingdom until he reached maturity. During Louiss childhood, Blanche dealt with the opposition of rebellious vassals, as an adult, Louis IX faced recurring conflicts with some of the most powerful nobles, such as Hugh X of Lusignan and Peter of Dreux. Simultaneously, Henry III of England tried to restore his continental possessions and his reign saw the annexation of several provinces, notably Normandy, Maine and Provence. Louis IX was a reformer and developed French royal justice, in which the king is the judge to whom anyone is able to appeal to seek the amendment of a judgment. He banned trials by ordeal, tried to prevent the private wars that were plaguing the country, to enforce the correct application of this new legal system, Louis IX created provosts and bailiffs. According to his vow made after an illness, and confirmed after a miraculous cure. He was succeeded by his son Philip III, Louiss actions were inspired by Christian values and Catholic devotion. He decided to punish blasphemy, gambling, interest-bearing loans and prostitution and he also expanded the scope of the Inquisition and ordered the burning of Talmuds. He is the only canonized king of France, and there are many places named after him. Much of what is known of Louiss life comes from Jean de Joinvilles famous Life of Saint Louis, two other important biographies were written by the kings confessor, Geoffrey of Beaulieu, and his chaplain, William of Chartres. The fourth important source of information is William of Saint-Parthus biography, while several individuals wrote biographies in the decades following the kings death, only Jean of Joinville, Geoffrey of Beaulieu, and William of Chartres wrote from personal knowledge of the king. Louis was born on 25 April 1214 at Poissy, near Paris, the son of Prince Louis the Lion and Princess Blanche, and baptised in La Collégiale Notre-Dame church. His grandfather on his fathers side was Philip II, king of France, while his grandfather on his mothers side was Alfonso VIII, tutors of Blanches choosing taught him most of what a king must know—Latin, public speaking, writing, military arts, and government. He was 9 years old when his grandfather Philip II died, a member of the House of Capet, Louis was twelve years old when his father died on 8 November 1226. He was crowned king within the month at Reims cathedral, because of Louiss youth, his mother ruled France as regent during his minority. Louis mother trained him to be a leader and a good Christian. She used to say, I love you, my son, as much as a mother can love her child
7.
Seventh Crusade
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The Seventh Crusade was a crusade led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. Approximately 800,000 bezants were paid in ransom for his return, in 1244, the Khwarezmians, recently displaced by the advance of the Mongols, took Jerusalem on their way to ally with the Egyptian Mamluks. This time, despite calls from the Pope, there was no popular enthusiasm for a new crusade, there were also many conflicts within Europe that kept its leaders from embarking on the Crusade. Pope Innocent IV and Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor continued the papal-imperial struggle, Frederick had captured and imprisoned clerics on their way to the First Council of Lyon, and in 1245 he was formally deposed by Innocent IV. Pope Gregory IX had also earlier offered King Louis brother, count Robert of Artois, the German throne, thus, the Holy Roman Emperor was in no position to crusade. Béla IV of Hungary was rebuilding his kingdom from the ashes after the devastating Mongol invasion of 1241, Henry III of England was still struggling with Simon de Montfort and other problems in England. Louis IX had also invited King Haakon IV of Norway to crusade, sending the English chronicler Matthew Paris as an ambassador, the only man interested in beginning another crusade therefore was Louis IX, who declared his intent to go East in 1245. France was perhaps one of the strongest states in Europe at the time, poitou was ruled by Louis IXs brother Alphonse of Poitiers, who joined him on his crusade in 1245. Another brother, Charles I of Anjou, also joined Louis, Louis IXs financial preparations for this expedition were comparatively well organized, and he was able to raise approximately 1,500,000 livres tournois. However, many nobles who joined Louis on the expedition had to borrow money from the treasury. Nonetheless, Egypt was the object of his crusade, and he landed in 1249 at Damietta on the Nile, Egypt would, Louis thought, provide a base from which to attack Jerusalem, and its wealth and supply of grain would keep the crusaders fed and equipped. On 6 June Damietta was taken with little resistance from the Egyptians, who withdrew further up the Nile. The flooding of the Nile had not been taken into account, however, and it soon grounded Louis and his army at Damietta for six months, where the knights sat back and enjoyed the spoils of war. A force led by Robert of Artois and the Templars attacked the Egyptian camp at Gideila and advanced to Al Mansurah where they were defeated at the Battle of Al Mansurah, and Robert was killed. Meanwhile, Louis main force was attacked by the Mameluk Baibars, the commander of the army and a future sultan himself. Louis was defeated as well, but he did not withdraw to Damietta for months, preferring to besiege Mansourah, which ended in starvation and death for the crusaders rather than the Muslims. In showing utter agony, a Templar knight lamented, In March 1250 Louis finally tried to return to Damietta, Louis fell ill with dysentery, and was cured by an Arab physician. In May he was ransomed for 800,000 bezants, half of which was to be paid before the King left Egypt, upon this, he immediately left Egypt for Acre, one of few remaining crusader possessions in Syria
8.
Tatars
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The Tatars are a Turkic people living in Asia and Europe who were one of the five major tribal confederations in the Mongolian plateau in the 12th century CE. The name Tatar first appears in form on the Kul Tigin monument as
9.
Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
10.
Baldwin II, Latin Emperor
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Baldwin II, also known as Baldwin of Courtenay, was the last monarch of the Latin Empire ruling from Constantinople. Baldwin II was born in Constantinople, a son of Yolanda of Flanders. The barons chose John of Brienne as emperor-regent for life, Baldwin was also to marry Marie of Brienne, daughter of John and his third wife Berenguela of Leon, and on Johns death to enjoy the full imperial sovereignty. The marriage contract was carried out in 1234, the realm Baldwin governed was little more than the city of Constantinople. He adopted the Byzantine title of porphyrogenetos and his financial situation was desperate, and his life was chiefly occupied in begging at European courts. He went to the West in 1236, visited Rome, France and Flanders, trying to raise money, in 1237, with the support of the King of France and the Countess of Flanders, he chased his sister Margaret from power to become the next Count of Namur. But Baldwin was practically never present, and after the invasion and conquest of Namur by Henry V, Count of Luxembourg in 1256, he sold the rights on the County to his cousin Guy, Count of Flanders. In 1237, Baldwin II pawned the Crown of Thorns to a Venetian merchant for 13,134 gold pieces and his efforts met with success, and in 1240 he returned to Constantinople at the head of a considerable army. Circumstances hindered him from accomplishing anything with this help, and in 1245 he traveled again to the West, first to Italy and then to France, the empress Marie and Philip of Toucy governed during his absence. He was happy to be able to get money from King Louis IX in exchange for relics, in 1249 he was with King Louis at Damietta. The extremity of his financial straits reduced him soon afterwards to handing over his son, Philip. Philip was later redeemed by Alfonso X of Castile, the rest of his reign was spent by Baldwin in mendicant tours in western Europe. On the night of 24 July 1261, a group of soldiers under Alexios Strategopoulos managed to enter Constantinople through a secret passageway, Baldwin made his way to the harbor where he boarded a Venetian galley to Negropont. From there he proceeded to Athens, thence to Apulia, finally to France, as titular emperor, his role was still the same, to beg help from the western powers. In 1267 he went to Italy, his hopes were centred on Charles of Anjou, to this intent, he signed the Treaty of Viterbo with Baldwin. During the next year Baldwin and his son Philip lived on pensions from Charles, in October 1273 Philip married Beatrice, daughter of Charles, at Foggia. A few days later Baldwin died in Naples, under Baldwin II, Constantinoples population had fallen to a mere 35,000 people. Harris, Jonathan, Byzantium and the Crusades, Bloomsbury, 2nd ed.2014, mortgage and Redemption of an Emperors Son, Castile and the Latin Empire of Constantinople
11.
Friar Julian
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Friar Julian was one of a group of Hungarian Dominican friars who, in 1235, left Hungary in order to find those Magyars who — according to the chronicles — remained in the eastern homeland. After travelling a distance, Friar Julian reached the capital of Volga Bulgaria. Julian named the old country Magna Hungaria or Great Hungary and he became aware of stories about the infamous Tatars, who were the enemies of the eastern Magyars and Bulgars. Two years after the journey, Julian returned to Magna Hungaria. He returned to his kingdom with news of mortal danger and a Mongol ultimatum to Hungary, the Dominican order was established in Hungary in 1221 with the aim of evangelizing the East, which simultaneously raised the issue of discovering the Hungarians who had remained on the native soil. Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria Battle of Mohi Eastern Magyars
12.
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine
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He is the author of the earliest important Western account of northern and central Asia, Rus, and other regions of the Mongol dominion. He was the Primate of Serbia, based in Antivari, from 1247 to 1252, Giovanni appears to have been a native of Umbria, in central Italy. His surname was derived from Pian del Carpine, an area known later as Magione and he was one of the companions and disciples of his near-contemporary and countryman Saint Francis of Assisi. Giovanni was provincial of Germany at the time of the great Mongol invasion of eastern Europe, the defeat of European forces at Legnica led almost to Ögedei, Khan of the Mongol Empire, controlling most of Europe. In Europe, dread of the Tatars was still four years later. The missionaries were sent partly in protest at the Mongol invasion of Christendom and partly to gain information regarding the Khans intentions, Pope Innocent IV chose Friar Joannes to head this mission. Joannes was around sixty-five at the time, and apparently was in charge of everything in the mission. As a papal legate, he bore a letter from the Pope to the Great Khan, Cum non solum. Joannes started from Lyon, where the Pope then resided, on Easter day, accompanied by another friar, Stephen of Bohemia, who broke down at Kaniv near Kiev and was left behind. After seeking counsel of an old friend, Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, Joannes was joined at Wrocław by another Franciscan, Benedykt Polak, the route passed by Kiev, entered the Tatar posts at Kaniv, and then ran across the Nepere to the Don and Volga. Joannes is the first Westerner to give us the names for these rivers. On the Volga stood the Ordu, or camp, of Batu and he was one of the most senior princes of the house of Genghis Khan. Here the envoys, with their presents, had to pass between two fires to remove possible injurious thoughts and poisons, before being presented to the prince, Batu ordered them to proceed to the court of the supreme Khan in Mongolia. On Easter day once more, they started on the second, then they went along the shores of the Dzungarian lakes until, on the feast of St Mary Magdalene, they reached the imperial camp called Sira Orda, near Karakorum and the Orkhon River. Joannes and his companions rode an estimated 3000 miles in 106 days, since the death of Ögedei Khan, the imperial authority was in interregnum and Güyük, Ögedeis eldest son, was designated to the throne. On the 24th of August, they witnessed the formal enthronement at another camp in the vicinity called the Golden Ordu, after which they were presented to the new emperor. The great Khan, Güyük, refused the invitation to become Christian, the Khan did not dismiss the expedition until November. He gave them a letter to the Pope—written in Mongol, Arabic and they began a long winter journey home
13.
Sudak
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Sudak serves as the administrative center of Sudak Municipality, one of the regions Crimea is divided into. It is situated 57 km to the west of Feodosia and 104 km to the east of Simferopol, a city of antiquity, today it is a popular resort, best known for its Genoese fortress, the best preserved on the northern shore of the Black Sea. It is believed that the city was founded in 212 CE by Alani settlers on the territory of the Bosporan Kingdom, merchants from the Roman Empire founded Sougdaea, in Greek Σουγδαία in the 3rd century. In the 6th century, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I ordered the construction of a fortress, the Khazars attacked in the 7th century, giving it the name Suğdaq. The Life of St. Stefan of Surozh describes the 8th-century town as a dependency of the Byzantine Empire, around the start of the 9th century, it was supposedly attacked by the Rus chieftain, Bravlin. It is thought that the Khazars retained the town from the early 9th century until 1016, afterwards, the town seems to have preserved some sort of autonomy within the Byzantine Empire. From the 9th century until around the 12th century, there were important trade exchanges between the then Surozh and the Kievan Rus. It became an important location for trading on the Silk Road in the 12th and 13th centuries, despite attacks by the Cumans-Kipchaks in the 11th century and further damages inflicted by the Tatars. The city was controlled by the Cumans-Kipchaks, as reported by Ibn al-Air, ships come to it bearing clothes. The Qifjiqs buy from them and sell them slaves, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum army and fleet from Sinop held and fortified Sudak in 1224. Whereupon, the Sultan of Rum, Kayqubad I, built a mosque in 1225, the Venetians also came to Sudak at the beginning of the 13th century to take their share, naming the fortress Soldaia, before ceding it to Genoese control in 1365. The Ottomans took control of Soldaia and all other Genoese colonies, in 1771, Sudak was occupied by Rumyantsevs army. In 1783, it passed to the Russian Empire, with the rest of Crimea. Though sometimes contested, it seems that a mass emigration occurred as a result of the instability in that period. Even Potemkin ordered in 1778 the eviction of the Christian population from Crimea, the town rapidly turned into a small village, and according to the 1805 census, Sudak had just 33 inhabitants. In 1804, the first Russian school of viticulture was opened there, the present status of the town was acquired in 1982. Under Venetian/Genoese rule, a Latin Catholic diocese of Soldaia was established in 1390, in 1933 the Ancient see was nominally restored as Titular bishopric of Sugdæa, which was promoted in 1948 to Metropolitan titular archbishopric. Stefan of Surozh Theodora, the basilissa of Sugdaia The murder of the Jews of Sudak during World War II, at Yad Vashem website
14.
Bullock cart
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A bullock cart or ox cart is a two-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen. It is a means of transportation used since ancient times in many parts of the world and they are still used today where modern vehicles are too expensive or the infrastructure does not favor them. Used especially for carrying goods, the cart is pulled by one or several oxen. The cart is attached to a team by a special chain attached to yokes. The driver and any other passengers sit on the front of the cart, traditionally the cargo was usually agrarian goods and lumber. The invention of the used in India transportation most likely took place in Europe. Evidence of wheeled vehicles appears from the mid 4th millennium BC near-simultaneously in the Northern Caucasus, the earliest vehicles may have been ox carts. In Australia, bullock carts were referred to as bullock drays and were used to carry large loads. Drays were pulled by teams which could consist of 20 or more animals. Bullock teams were used extensively to produce from rural areas to major towns. Because of Australias size, these journeys often covered large distances and could take many days, Costa Rican parades and traditional celebrations are not complete without a traditional ox cart parade. In 1988, the ox cart was declared as National Symbol of Work by the Costa Rican government. In 2005, the Oxherding and Oxcart Traditions in Costa Rica were included in UNESCOs Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In Indonesia, bullock carts are used in the rural parts of the country. But it is common in Indonesia that there are horsecars. In Indonesia, ox cart driver called a bajingan, bullock carts were widely used in Malaysia before the introduction of automobiles, and many are still used today. These included passenger vehicles, now used especially for tourists, passenger carts are usually equipped with awnings for protection against sun and rain, and are often gaily decorated
15.
Don River (Russia)
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The Don is one of the major rivers of Russia and the 5th longest river in Europe. The Don basin is between the Dnieper basin to the west, the Volga basin to the east, and the Oka basin to the north. The Don rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast of Tula, from its source, the river first flows southeast to Voronezh, then southwest to its mouth. The main city on the river is Rostov on Don and its main tributary is the Seversky Donets. In antiquity, the river was viewed as the border between Europe and Asia by some ancient Greek geographers, during the times of the old Scythians it was known in Greek as the Tanaïs and has been a major trading route ever since. Tanais appears in ancient Greek sources as both the name of the river and of a city on it, situated in the Maeotian marshes, pliny gives the Scythian name of the Tanais as Silys. According to Plutarch, the Don River was also home to the legendary Amazons of Greek mythology, the area around the estuary is speculated to be the source of the Black Death. While the lower Don was well known to ancient geographers, its middle, the Don Cossacks, who settled the fertile valley of the river in the 16th and 17th centuries, were named after the river. The fort of Donkov was founded by the princes of Ryazan in the late 14th century and it is shown as Donko in Mercators Atlas, Donkov was again relocated in 1618, appearing as Donkagorod in Joan Blaeus map of 1645. Both Blaeu and Mercator follow the 16th-century cartographic tradition of letting the Don originate in a great lake, Mercator still follows Giacomo Gastaldo in showing a waterway connecting this lake to Ryazan and the Oka River. In modern literature, the Don region was featured in the work And Quiet Flows the Don of Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, at its easternmost point, the Don comes near the Volga, and the Volga-Don Canal, connecting the two rivers, is a major waterway. The water level of the Don in this area is raised by the Tsimlyansk Dam and this facility, with its dam, maintains sufficient water level both in its section of the Don and in the lowermost stretch of the Seversky Donets. This is presently the last lock on the Don, below Kochetovsky lock, the sufficient depth of the navigation waterway is maintained by dredging
16.
Golden Horde
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The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it became a functionally separate khanate and it is also known as the Kipchak Khanate or as the Ulus of Jochi. After the death of Batu Khan in 1255, his dynasty flourished for a century, until 1359. The Hordes military power peaked during the reign of Uzbeg, who adopted Islam, the territory of the Golden Horde at its peak included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the Danube River, and extended east deep into Siberia. In the south, the Golden Hordes lands bordered on the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the khanate experienced violent internal political disorder beginning in 1359, before it briefly reunited under Tokhtamysh. However, soon after the 1396 invasion of Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire, at the start of the 15th century the Horde began to fall apart. By 1466 it was being referred to simply as the Great Horde, within its territories there emerged numerous predominantly Turkic-speaking khanates. These internal struggles allowed the northern state of Muscovy to rid itself of the Tatar Yoke at the Great stand on the Ugra river in 1480. The Crimean Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate, the last remnants of the Golden Horde, in any event, it was not until the 16th century that Russian chroniclers begin explicitly using the term Golden Horde to refer to this particular successor khanate of the Mongol Empire. The first known use of the term, in 1565, in the Russian chronicle History of Kazan, applied it to the Ulus of Batu and its left wing was referred to as the Blue Horde in Russian chronicles and as the White Horde in Timurid sources. Western scholars have tended to follow the Timurid sources nomenclature and call the left wing the White Horde, the khanate apparently used the term White Horde to refer to its right wing, which was situated in Batus home base in Sarai and controlled the ulus. However, the designations Golden Horde, Blue Horde, and White Horde have not been encountered in the sources of the Mongol period. At his death in 1227, Genghis Khan divided the Mongol Empire amongst his four sons as appanages, Jochi was the eldest, but he died six months before Genghis. In 1235, Batu with the great general Subedei began an invasion westwards, first conquering the Bashkirs, from there he conquered some of the southern steppes of present-day Ukraine in 1237, forcing many of the local Cumans to retreat westward. The military campaign against the Kypchaks and Cumans had started under Jochi, by 1239 a large portion of Cumans were driven out of the Crimea peninsula, and it became one of the appanages of the Mongol Empire. The remnants of the Crimean Cumans survived in the Crimean mountains, moving north, Batu began the Mongol invasion of Rus and for three years subjugated the principalities of former Kievan Rus, whilst his cousins Möngke, Kadan, and Güyük moved southwards into Alania. Using the migration of the Cumans as their casus belli, the Mongols continued west, raiding Poland and Hungary and culminating in the battles of Legnica, in 1241, however, Ögedei Khan died in the Mongolia homeland. Batu turned back from his siege of Vienna to take part in disputing the succession, the Mongol armies would never again travel so far west
17.
Batu Khan
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Batu Khan, also known as Sain Khan and Tsar Batu, was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Golden Horde, division of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan and his ulus was the chief state of the Golden Horde, which ruled Rus, Volga Bulgaria, Cumania, and the Caucasus for around 250 years, after also destroying the armies of Poland and Hungary. Batu or Bat literally means firm in the Mongolian language, after the deaths of Genghis Khans sons, he became the most respected prince called agha in the Mongol Empire. After his son Jochis death, Genghis Khan assigned Jochis appanages to his sons, but the Great Khan installed Batu as Khan of the Golden Horde. Jochis eldest son, Orda Khan, also agreed that Batu should succeed their father, Genghis Khans youngest brother Temüge attended the coronation ceremony as an official representative of Genghis. When Genghis Khan died in 1227, he left 4,000 Mongol men to Jochis family, Jochis lands were divided between Batu and his older brother Orda. Ordas White Horde ruled the lands roughly between the Volga river and Lake Balkhash, while Batus Horde ruled the lands west of the Volga, in 1229, Ögedei dispatched three tumens under Kukhdei and Sundei to conquer the tribes on the lower Ural River. Despite heavy resistance of their enemies, the Mongols conquered major cities of the Jurchens, at the kurultai in Mongolia after the end of the Mongol-Jin War, the Great Khan Ögedei ordered Batu to conquer western nations. In 1235 Batu, who earlier had directed the conquest of the Crimean Peninsula, was assigned an army of possibly 130,000 to oversee an invasion of Europe. His relatives and cousins Güyük, Büri, Möngke, Khulgen, Khadan, Baidar and notable Mongol generals Subutai, Borolday, the army, actually commanded by Subutai, crossed the Volga and invaded Volga Bulgaria in 1236. It took them a year to extinguish the resistance of the Volga Bulgarians, Kypchaks, in November 1237 Batu Khan sent his envoys to the court of Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal and demanded his allegiance. When Yuri refused to surrender the Mongols besieged Ryazan, after six days of bloody battle, the city was totally annihilated and never restored to its former glory. Alarmed by the news, Yuri II sent his sons to detain the horde, having burnt Kolomna and Moscow, the horde laid siege to the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal on February 4,1238. Three days later the city was taken and burnt to the ground, the royal family perished in the fire, while the grand prince hastily retreated northward. Crossing the Volga, he mustered a new army, which was exterminated by the Mongols on the Sit River on March 4. The most difficult to take was the town of Kozelsk, whose boy-prince Titus. As the story goes, at the news of Mongol approach, the city of Kitezh was submerged in a lake with all its inhabitants, Khadan and Buri stormed the city in three days after they joined Batu. Batu sent an envoy to his uncle Ögedei to complain of his cousins rude behavior, Ögedei got angry on hearing the news and recalled Buri and Güyük
18.
Sarai (city)
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Located in present-day Russia, they were among the largest cities of the medieval world, with a population estimated by the 2005 Britannica at 600,000. Sarai is Persian for palace and Russian for shed, there is also a variation meaning home, similar to Sarajevo in the Balkan peninsula. Old Sarai, or Sarai Batu or Sarai-al-Maqrus was established by Mongol ruler Batu Khan in the mid-1240s, on a site east of the Akhtuba river, Sarai was the seat of Batu and his successor Berke. Under them Sarai was the capital of a great empire, the various Rus princes came to Sarai to pledge allegiance to the Khan and receive his patent of authority. The bishops of Krutitsy resided in Tsarev from 1261 to 1454 and it had probably succeeded Sarai Batu as the capital of the Golden Horde by the mid-14th century. Both cities were sacked several times, timur sacked New Sarai around 1395, and Meñli I Giray of the Crimean Khanate sacked New Sarai around 1502. The forces of Ivan IV of Russia finally destroyed Sarai after conquering the Astrakhan Khanate in 1556, in 1623-1624, a Russian merchant, Fedot Kotov, travelled to Persia via the lower Volga. He described the site of Sarai, Here by the river Akhtuba stands the Golden Horde, the khans court, palaces, and courts, and mosques are all made of stone. But now all these buildings are being dismantled and the stone is being taken to Astrakhan, since Old Sarai lies at 120 km from Astrakhan and New Sarai at 300 km, it is difficult to decide to which of these two cities this description applies. After the destruction of New Sarai, Russia established the city of Tsaritsyn to control the area. Sarai Juk was a city on the Ural River and it is often conflated with the other Sarais in historical and modern accounts. This town was the city of the Nogai Horde, one of the successors of the Golden Horde. Although sacked by the Ural Cossacks in 1580, it was used as the headquarters by some Kazakh khans
19.
Volga River
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The Volga is the longest river in Europe. It is also Europes largest river in terms of discharge and watershed, the river flows through central Russia and into the Caspian Sea, and is widely regarded as the national river of Russia. Eleven of the twenty largest cities of Russia, including the capital, some of the largest reservoirs in the world can be found along the Volga. The river has a meaning in Russian culture and is often referred to as Волга-матушка Volga-Matushka in Russian literature and folklore. The Slavic name is a translation of earlier Scythian Rā Volga, literally wetness, cognate with Avestan Raŋhā mythical stream and Sanskrit rasā́- dew, liquid, juice. The Scythian name survives in modern Mordvin Rav Volga, the Turkic peoples living along the river formerly referred to it as Itil or Atil big river. In modern Turkic languages, the Volga is known as İdel in Tatar, Атăл in Chuvash, Idhel in Bashkir, Edil in Kazakh, the Turkic peoples associated the Itils origin with the Kama. Thus, a tributary to the Kama was named the Aq Itil White Itil which unites with the Kara Itil Black Itil at the modern city of Ufa. The name Indyl is used in Adyge language, among Asians, the river was known by its other Turkic name Sarı-su yellow water, but the Oirats also used their own name, Ijil mörön or adaptation river. Presently the Mari, another Uralic group, call the river Jul, formerly, they called the river Volgydo, a borrowing from Old Russian. The Volga is the longest river in Europe and it belongs to the closed basin of the Caspian Sea, being the longest river to flow into a closed basin. From there it turns south, flows past Ulyanovsk, Tolyatti, Samara, Saratov and Volgograd, at its most strategic point, it bends toward the Don. Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, is located there, the Volga has many tributaries, most importantly the rivers Kama, the Oka, the Vetluga, and the Sura. The Volga and its tributaries form the Volga river system, which flows through an area of about 1,350,000 square kilometres in the most heavily populated part of Russia. The Volga Delta has a length of about 160 kilometres and includes as many as 500 channels, the largest estuary in Europe, it is the only place in Russia where pelicans, flamingos, and lotuses may be found. The Volga freezes for most of its length for three each year. The Volga drains most of Western Russia and its many large reservoirs provide irrigation and hydroelectric power. The Moscow Canal, the Volga–Don Canal, and the Volga–Baltic Waterway form navigable waterways connecting Moscow to the White Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov, high levels of chemical pollution have adversely affected the river and its habitats
20.
Khagan
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Khagan or Qagan is a title in the Mongolian language equal to the status of emperor and used to refer to someone who rules a khaganate or empire. The title was adopted by Ögedei Khan from the Turkic title kaɣan and it may also be translated as Khan of Khans, equivalent to King of Kings. In modern Mongolian, the title became Khaan with the g sound becoming almost silent or non-existent, since the division of the Mongol Empire, emperors of the Yuan dynasty held the title of Khagan and their successors in Mongolia continued to have the title. Kağan and Kaan are common Turkish names in Turkey, the common western rendering as Great Khan, notably in the case of the Mongol Empire, is translation of Yekhe Khagan. In the speech one of the Murongs general named Yinalou addressed him as kehan, the Rouran Khaganate was the first people to use the titles Khagan and Khan for their emperors, replacing the Chanyu of the Xiongnu, whom Grousset and others assume to be Turkic. However, many believe the Rouran were proto-Mongols. The Avar Khaganate, who may have included Rouran elements after the Göktürks crushed the Rouran ruling Mongolia, the Avars invaded Europe, and for over a century ruled the Carpathian region. Westerners Latinized the title Khagan into Gaganus or Cagan, Khagan or Khaan refers to Emperor or King in the Mongolian language, however, Yekhe Khagan means Great Khagan or Grand Emperor. Thus, the Yuan is sometimes referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan, coexisting with the independent Mongol khanates in the west, including the Chagatai Khanate, only the Ilkhanate truly recognized the Yuans overlordship as allies. Later Yuan emperors made peace with the three khanates of the Mongol Empire and were considered as their nominal suzerain. The nominal supremacy, while based on nothing like the foundations as that of the earlier Khagans, did last for a few decades. After the breakdown of Mongol Empire and the fall of the Yuan dynasty in the mid-14th century, dayan Khan once revived Emperors authority and recovered its reputation in Mongolia, but with the distribution of his empire among his sons and relatives as fiefs it again caused decentralized rule. The last Khagan of the Chahars, Ligdan Khan, died in 1634 while fighting the Qing dynasty founded by the Manchu people, in contemporary Mongolian language the word Khaan and Khan have different meanings, while English language usually does not differentiate between them. The title is used as a generic term for a king or emperor. Minor rulers were rather relegated to the title of khan. Khagan is the title of Safavid and Qajar shahs of Iran. For example, Agha Muhammad Khan Qajar, Fath Ali Shah, the nickname of Shah Ismail and other Safavid shahs is Kagan-i Suleyman shan. Emperor Taizong of Tang was crowned Tian Kehan, or heavenly Khagan after defeating the Tujue, a later letter sent by the Tang court to the Yenisei Kirghiz Qaghan explained that the peoples of the northwest had requested Tang Taizong to become the Heavenly Qaghan
21.
Mongols
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The Mongols are an East-Central Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia and Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They also live as minorities in other regions of China, as well as in Russia, Mongolian people belonging to the Buryat and Kalmyk subgroups live predominantly in the Russian federal subjects of Buryatia and Kalmykia. The Mongols are bound together by a heritage and ethnic identity. Their indigenous dialects are known as the Mongolian language. The ancestors of the modern-day Mongols are referred to as Proto-Mongols, broadly defined, the term includes the Mongols proper, Buryats, Oirats, the Kalmyk people and the Southern Mongols. The latter comprises the Abaga Mongols, Abaganar, Aohans, Baarins, Gorlos Mongols, Jalaids, Jaruud, Khishigten, Khuuchid, Muumyangan, the designation Mongol briefly appeared in 8th century records of Tang China to describe a tribe of Shiwei. It resurfaced in the late 11th century during the Khitan-ruled Liao dynasty, after the fall of the Liao in 1125, the Khamag Mongols became a leading tribe on the Mongolian Plateau. However, their wars with the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty and the Tatar confederation had weakened them, in the thirteenth century, the word Mongol grew into an umbrella term for a large group of Mongolic-speaking tribes united under the rule of Genghis Khan. In various times Mongolic peoples have been equated with the Scythians, the Magog, based on Chinese historical texts the ancestry of the Mongolic peoples can be traced back to the Donghu, a nomadic confederation occupying eastern Mongolia and Manchuria. The identity of the Xiongnu is still debated today, although some scholars maintain that they were proto-Mongols, they were more likely a multi-ethnic group of Mongolic and Turkic tribes. It has been suggested that the language of the Huns was related to the Hünnü, the Donghu are mentioned by Sima Qian as already existing in Inner Mongolia north of Yan in 699–632 BCE along with the Shanrong. Mentions in the Yi Zhou Shu and the Classic of Mountains, the Xianbei chieftain was appointed joint guardian of the ritual torch along with Xiong Yi. These early Xianbei came from the nearby Zhukaigou culture in the Ordos Desert, where maternal DNA corresponds to the Mongol Daur people, the Zhukaigou Xianbei had trade relations with the Shang. In the late 2nd century, the Han dynasty scholar Fu Qian wrote in his commentary Jixie that Shanrong, againm in Inner Mongolia another closely connected core Mongolic Xianbei region was the Upper Xiajiadian culture where the Donghu confederation was centered. After the Donghu were defeated by Xiongnu king Modu Chanyu, the Xianbei, tadun Khan of the Wuhuan was the ancestor of the proto-Mongolic Kumo Xi. The Wuhuan are of the direct Donghu royal line and the New Book of Tang says that in 209 BCE, the Xianbei, however, were of the lateral Donghu line and had a somewhat separate identity, although they shared the same language with the Wuhuan. In 49 CE the Xianbei ruler Bianhe raided and defeated the Xiongnu, killing 2000, the Xianbei reached their peak under Tanshihuai Khan who expanded the vast, but short lived, Xianbei state. Three prominent groups split from the Xianbei state as recorded by the Chinese histories, the Rouran, the Khitan people, besides these three Xianbei groups, there were others such as the Murong, Duan and Tuoba
22.
Karakorum
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Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260, and of the Northern Yuan in the 14–15th centuries. Its ruins lie in the corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near todays town of Kharkhorin. They are part of the part of the World Heritage Site Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape. The Orkhon valley was a center of the Xiongnu, Göktürk, to the Göktürks, the nearby Khangai Mountains had been the location of the Ötüken, and the Uighur capital Karabalgasun was located close to where later Karakorum would be erected. This area is also one of the oldest farming areas in Mongolia. Ögedei Khan gave the decree to build the Tumen Amgalan Ord in 1235 the year after he defeated the Jin Dynasty and it was finished in one year. In the Yuanshi it is written in the section for Taizong Ögedei Khan, In the seventh year, the name Karakorum or Kharkhorin in Mongolian language might be translated as black quarter/space or literally black imprisonment. Khar means black and khorin probably shares the root as the verb khori as in khorigdoh that means to be imprisoned/held. Khori also means twenty like khorin mori, but it is unlikely there would be a black twenty. Under Ögedei and his successors, Karakorum became a site for world politics. Möngke Khan had the enlarged, and the great stupa temple completed. They also commissioned the famous Silver Tree of Karakorum at the city center, the sculptor was the Parisian Guillaume Bouchier. A large tree sculpted of silver and other precious metals rose up from the middle of the courtyard and loomed over the palace, william of Rubruck, a Flemish Franciscan missionary and papal envoy to the Mongols reached Karakorum in 1254. He has left one of the most detailed, though not always flattering and he compared it rather unfavourably to the village of Saint-Denis near Paris, and was of the opinion that the royal abbey there was ten times as important as the Khans palace. When Kublai Khan claimed the throne of the Mongol Empire in 1260—as did his brother, Ariq Böke—he relocated his capital to Shangdu. Karakorum was reduced to the center of a provincial backwater of the Yuan dynasty founded in China in 1271. Even worse, the ensuing Toluid Civil War with Ariq Böke, in 1260, Kublai disrupted the towns grain supply, in 1277 Kaidu took Karakorum, only to be ousted by Yuan troops and Bayan of the Baarin in the following year. In 1298–99 prince Ulus Buqa looted the markets and the grain storehouses
23.
Empire of Nicaea
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Founded by the Laskaris family, it lasted from 1204 to 1261, when the Nicaeans restored the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople. In 1204, Byzantine emperor Alexios V Ducas Murtzouphlos fled Constantinople after crusaders invaded the city. Theodore I Lascaris, the son-in-law of Emperor Alexios III Angelos, was proclaimed emperor but he too, realizing the situation in Constantinople was hopeless, fled to the city of Nicaea in Bithynia. The Latin Empire, established by the Crusaders in Constantinople, had control over former Byzantine territory, and Byzantine successor states sprang up in Epirus, Trebizond. Trebizond had broken away as an independent state a few weeks before the fall of Constantinople, Nicaea, however, was the closest to the Latin Empire and was in the best position to attempt to re-establish the Byzantine Empire. Theodore also defeated an army from Trebizond, as well as minor rivals. In 1206, Theodore proclaimed himself emperor at Nicaea, numerous truces and alliances were formed and broken over the next few years, as the Byzantine successor states, the Latin Empire, the Bulgarians, and the Seljuks of Iconium fought each other. In 1211, at Antioch on the Meander, Theodore defeated an invasion by the Seljuks. The Nicaeans were compensated for this loss when, in 1212. Theodore consolidated his claim to the throne by naming a new Patriarch of Constantinople in Nicaea. In 1219, he married the daughter of Latin Empress Yolanda of Flanders, the accession of Vatatzes was initially challenged by the Laskarids, with the sebastokratores Isaac and Alexios, brothers of Theodore I, seeking the aid of the Latin Empire. Vatatzes prevailed over their forces, however, in the Battle of Poimanenon, securing his throne. It proved short-lived, as it came under Bulgarian control after the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230, with Trebizond lacking any real power, Nicaea was the only Byzantine state left, and John III expanded his territory across the Aegean Sea. In 1235, he allied with Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria, allowing him to extend his influence over Thessalonica and Epirus. In 1242, the Mongols invaded Seljuk territory to the east of Nicaea, in 1245, John allied with the Holy Roman Empire by marrying Constance II of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Frederick II. In 1246, John attacked Bulgaria and recovered most of Thrace and Macedonia, by 1248, John had defeated the Bulgarians and surrounded the Latin Empire. He continued to land from the Latins until his death in 1254. Theodore II Lascaris, John IIIs son, faced invasions from the Bulgarians in Thrace, a conflict between Nicaea and Epirus broke out in 1257
24.
Felicitas
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In ancient Roman culture, felicitas is a condition of divinely inspired productivity, blessedness, or happiness. Felicitas could encompass both a womans fertility, and a generals luck or good fortune, the divine personification of Felicitas was cultivated as a goddess. Although felicitas may be translated as good luck, and the goddess Felicitas shares some characteristics and attributes with Fortuna, Fortuna was unpredictable and her effects could be negative, as the existence of an altar to Mala Fortuna acknowledges. Felicitas, however, always had a positive significance and she appears with several epithets that focus on aspects of her divine power. Felicitas continued to play an important role in Imperial cult, and was portrayed on coins as a symbol of the wealth. Her primary attributes are the caduceus and cornucopia, the English word felicity derives from felicitas. In its religious sense, felix means blessed, under the protection or favour of the gods and that which is felix has achieved the pax divom, a state of harmony or peace with the divine world. The word derives from Indo-European *dhel, meaning happy, fruitful, productive, full of nourishment. Related Latin words include femina, woman, felo, to suckle in regard to an infant, filius, son, in archaic Roman culture, felicitas was a quality expressing the close bonds between religion and agriculture. Felicitas was at issue when the suovetaurilia sacrifice conducted by Cato the Elder as censor in 184 BC was challenged as having been unproductive, perhaps for vitium, ritual error. In the following three years Rome had been plagued by a number of ill omens and prodigies, such as storms, pestilence, and showers of blood. The speech Cato gave to justify himself is known as the Oratio de lustri sui felicitate, Speech on the Felicitas of his Lustrum, the efficacy of a ritual might be thus expressed as its felicitas. The ability to promote felicitas became proof of ones excellence and divine favor, cicero lists felicitas as one of the four virtues of the exemplary general, along with knowledge of military science, virtus, and auctoritas, authority. Virtus was a complement to felicitas, which was not thought to attach to those who were unworthy. The sayings of Publilius Syrus are often attached to divine qualities, including Felicitas, epithets of Felicitas include, Augusta, the goddess in her association with the emperor and Imperial cult. Fausta, a state divinity cultivated on October 9 in conjunction with Venus Victrix, Publica, the public Felicitas, that is, the aspect of the divine force that was concerned with the res publica or commonwealth, or with the Roman People. Temporum, the Felicitas of the times, a title which emphasize the felicitas being experienced in current circumstances, the temple was destroyed by a fire during the reign of Claudius, though the Muses were rescued. It was not rebuilt at this site, Sulla identified himself so closely with the quality of felicitcas that he adopted the agnomen Felix
25.
Church of the East
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The Church of the East, also known as the Nestorian Church, is a Christian church within the Syriac tradition of Eastern Christianity. It was the Christian church of the Sassanian Empire, and quickly spread widely through Asia, between the 9th and 14th centuries, the Church represented the worlds largest Christian church in terms of geographical extent, with dioceses stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to China and India. Several modern churches claim continuity with the historical Church of the East, the Church of the East was headed by the Patriarch of the East, continuing a line that, according to tradition, stretched back to the Apostolic Age. Liturgically, the church adhered to the East Syrian Rite, and theologically, it adopted the doctrine of Nestorianism, which emphasises the distinctness of the divine and human natures of Jesus. This doctrine and its namesake, Nestorius, were condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431, leading to the Nestorian Schism and a subsequent exodus of Nestorius supporters to Sasanian Persia. The existing Christians in Persia welcomed these refugees and gradually adopted Nestorian doctrine by the 5th century, the church grew rapidly under the Sassanians, and following the Muslim conquest of Persia it was designated as a protected dhimmi community under Muslim rule. In the 13th and 14th centuries the church experienced a period of expansion under the Mongol Empire. From its peak of geographical extent, the experienced a rapid period of decline starting in the 14th century. The Ancient Church of the East further distinguished itself from the Assyrian Church of the East in the 20th century over reforms such as the use of the Gregorian Calendar. In the early 21st century, both the Assyrian Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church had approximately 500,000 members, the Church of the East was headed by the Patriarch of the East, an office that traces its origin to the Apostolic Age. The head of the church bears the title Catholicos. Like the churches from which it developed, the Church of the East has an ordained clergy divided into the three orders of deacon, priest, and bishop. Also like other churches, it has an episcopal polity, organisation by dioceses, each headed by a bishop, dioceses are organised into provinces under the authority of a metropolitan bishop. The office of bishop is an important one, and comes with additional duties and powers. The Patriarch also has the charge of the Province of the Patriarch, most of these latter were located farther afield within the territory of the Sasanian Empire, but very early on, provinces formed beyond the empires borders as well. By the 10th century, the church had between 20 and 30 metropolitan provinces including in China and India, the Chinese provinces were lost in the 11th century, and in the subsequent centuries, other exterior provinces went into decline as well. However, in the 13th century, during the Mongol Empire, other names for the church include Persian Church, Syriac or Syrian, and Assyrian. Nestoriuss doctrine represented the culmination of a philosophical current developed by scholars at the School of Antioch and this became a source of controversy when Nestorius publicly challenged usage of the title Theotokos for the Virgin Mary
26.
Tripoli, Lebanon
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Tripoli is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in the country. Situated 85 kilometers north of the capital Beirut, it is the capital of the North Governorate, Tripoli overlooks the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and it is the northernmost seaport in Lebanon. It holds a string of four small islands offshore, and they are also the islands in Lebanon. The Palm Islands were declared an area because of their status of haven for endangered loggerhead turtles, rare monk seals. Tripoli borders the city of El Mina, the port of the Tripoli District, Tripoli had a number of different names as far back as the Phoenician age. In the Amarna letters the name Derbly, possibly a Semitic cognate of the citys modern Arabic name Ṭarābulus, was mentioned, in an engraving concerning the invasion of Tripoli by the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II, it is called Mahallata or Mahlata, Mayza, and Kayza. Under the Phoenicians, the name Athar was used to refer to Tripoli, when the Ancient Greeks settled in the city they called it Τρίπολις, meaning three cities, influenced by the earlier phonetically similar but etymologically unrelated name Derbly. The Arabs called it Ṭarābulus and Ṭarābulus al-Šām, today, Tripoli is also known as al-fayḥā′, which is a term derived from the Arabic verb faha which is used to indicate the diffusion of a scent or smell. Tripoli was once known for its vast orange orchards, during the season of blooming, the pollen of orange flowers was said to be carried on the air, creating a splendid perfume which filled the city and suburbs. Tripoli has a Mediterranean Climate with mild winters and moderately hot summers, temperatures are moderated throughout the year due to the warm Mediterranean Current coming from Western Europe. Therefore, temperatures are warmer in the winter by around 10 °C, although snow is an extremely rare event that only occurs around once every 5 years, hail and sleet are very common and occur fairly regularly in the winter. Rainfall is concentrated in the months, with the summer typically being very dry. There is evidence of settlement in Tripoli that dates back as early as 1400 BCE, under Hellenistic rule, Tripoli was used as a naval shipyard and the city enjoyed a period of autonomy. It came under Roman rule around 64 BCE, the 551 Beirut earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Byzantine city of Tripoli along with other Mediterranean coastal cities. During Umayyad rule, Tripoli became a commercial and shipbuilding center and it achieved semi-independence under Fatimid rule, when it developed into a center of learning. The Crusaders laid siege to the city at the beginning of the 12th century and were finally to enter it in 1109. This caused extensive destruction, including the burning of Tripolis famous library, Dar al-Ilm, during the Crusaders rule the city became the capital of the County of Tripoli. In 1289, it fell to the Mamluks and the old part of the city was destroyed
27.
Ascelin of Lombardy
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Ascelin of Lombardy, also known as Nicolas Ascelin or Ascelin of Cremona, was a 13th-century Dominican friar whom Pope Innocent IV sent as an envoy to the Mongols in March 1245. Ascelin met with the Mongol ruler Baiju, and then returned to Europe with a message, prior to the First Council of Lyon in March 1245, Innocent IV dispatched four embassies to the Mongols, one of which included Ascelin. Ascelin met with the Mongol ruler Baiju at his camp in the valley of the Arax River in 1247, Ascelin is generally described as stubborn and unflexible in character. He did not bring gifts to the Mongols, and refused to show respect by genuflection unless they would accept baptism. The Mongols replied indignantly that they care about becoming Christians and dogs as they were, that the Pope was a dog. Ascelin reportedly barely escaped death, owing only to the respect which the Mongols traditionally granted to envoys. During his mission, he met with Muslim princes such as the uncle of the prince of Aleppo, and the brother of the prince of Mossul. The princes invited Ascelin to travel further east with them to meet the Great Khan in Karakorum, Mongolia, Ascelin carried Baijus reply, a missive which demanded the submission of the Pope, back to Europe. He was accompanied by two Mongolian envoys, Aïbeg and Serkis, who traveled with him back to Lyon and met with Innocent in 1248, in response, the pope issued the papal bull Viam agnoscere veritatis, which appealed to the Mongols that they should stop killing Christians. The envoys returned to their realm with the letter on November 22,1248
28.
Mongolia
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Mongolia /mɒŋˈɡoʊliə/ is a landlocked unitary sovereign state in East Asia. Its area is equivalent with the historical territory of Outer Mongolia. It is sandwiched between China to the south and Russia to the north, while it does not share a border with Kazakhstan, Mongolia is separated from it by only 36.76 kilometers. At 1,564,116 square kilometers, Mongolia is the 18th largest and it is also the worlds second-largest landlocked country behind Kazakhstan and the largest landlocked country that does not border a closed sea. The country contains very little land, as much of its area is covered by grassy steppe, with mountains to the north and west. Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the countrys population, approximately 30% of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic, horse culture is still integral. The majority of its population are Buddhists, the non-religious population is the second largest group. Islam is the dominant religion among ethnic Kazakhs, the majority of the states citizens are of Mongol ethnicity, although Kazakhs, Tuvans, and other minorities also live in the country, especially in the west. Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional economic, the area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Turkic Khaganate, and others. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history. His grandson Kublai Khan conquered China to establish the Yuan dynasty, after the collapse of the Yuan, the Mongols retreated to Mongolia and resumed their earlier pattern of factional conflict, except during the era of Dayan Khan and Tumen Zasagt Khan. In the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism began to spread in Mongolia, being led by the Manchu-founded Qing dynasty. By the early 1900s, almost one-third of the male population were Buddhist monks. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence from the Qing dynasty, shortly thereafter, the country came under the control of the Soviet Union, which had aided its independence from China. In 1924, the Mongolian Peoples Republic was declared as a Soviet satellite state, after the anti-Communist revolutions of 1989, Mongolia conducted its own peaceful democratic revolution in early 1990. This led to a multi-party system, a new constitution of 1992, homo erectus inhabited Mongolia from 850,000 years ago. Modern humans reached Mongolia approximately 40,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic, the Khoit Tsenkher Cave in Khovd Province shows lively pink, brown, and red ochre paintings of mammoths, lynx, bactrian camels, and ostriches, earning it the nickname the Lascaux of Mongolia. The venus figurines of Malta testify to the level of Upper Paleolithic art in northern Mongolia, the wheeled vehicles found in the burials of the Afanasevans have been dated to before 2200 BC
29.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
30.
John III Doukas Vatatzes
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John III Doukas Vatatzes, Latinized as Ducas Vatatzes, was Emperor of Nicaea from 1222 to 1254. He was succeeded by his son, known as Theodore II Laskaris, John Doukas Vatatzes had two older brothers. The struggle ended with the Battle of Poimanenos in 1224, in which his opponents were defeated in spite of support from the Latin Empire of Constantinople. John IIIs victory led to territorial concessions by the Latin Empire in 1225, followed by Johns incursion into Europe, where he seized Adrianople. John IIIs possession of Adrianople was terminated by Theodore Komnenos Doukas of Epirus and Thessalonica, the elimination of Theodore by Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria in 1230 put an end to the danger posed by Thessalonica, and John III made an alliance with Bulgaria against the Latin Empire. In 1235 this alliance resulted in the restoration of the Bulgarian patriarchate, in that same year, the Bulgarians and Nicaeans campaigned against the Latin Empire, and in 1236 they attempted a siege of Constantinople. Subsequently, Ivan Asen II adopted an ambivalent policy, effectively becoming neutral, immediately afterwards, John III was able to establish an effective stranglehold on Constantinople in 1247. In the last years of his reign Nicaean authority extended far to the west, michaels allies Golem of Kruja and Theodore Petraliphas defected to John III in 1252. John III died in Nymphaion in 1254, and was buried in the monastery of Sosandra, John III Doukas Vatatzes was a successful ruler who laid the groundwork for Nicaeas recovery of Constantinople. John III effected Nicaean expansion into Europe, where by the end of his reign he had annexed his former rival Thessalonica and had expanded at the expense of Bulgaria and Epirus. Moreover, John III is credited with developing the internal prosperity and economy of his realm, encouraging justice. In spite of his epilepsy, John III had provided leadership in both peace and war. A half-century after his death, John III was canonized as a saint, under the name John the Merciful, but those who ramble and play about his ruined palace seldom connect it even with his name. The generations after John Vatatzes looked back upon him as the Father of the Greeks, John III Doukas Vatatzes married first Irene Lascarina, the daughter of his predecessor Theodore I Laskaris in 1212. They had one son, the future Theodore II Doukas Laskaris, Irene fell from a horse and was so badly injured that she was unable to have any more children. Irene retired to a convent, taking the monastic name Eugenia, John III married as his second wife Constance II of Hohenstaufen, an illegitimate daughter of Emperor Frederick II by his mistress Bianca Lancia. List of Byzantine emperors This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. John Vatatzes entry in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, alexander Kazhdan Oxford University Press,1991
31.
Ovid
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Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists and he enjoyed enormous popularity, but, in one of the mysteries of literary history, was sent by Augustus into exile in a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. Ovid himself attributes his exile to carmen et error, a poem and a mistake and his poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology, Ovid talks more about his own life than most other Roman poets. Information about his biography is drawn primarily from his poetry, especially Tristia 4.10, other sources include Seneca the Elder and Quintilian. Ovid was born in Sulmo, in an Apennine valley east of Rome, to an important equestrian family and that was a significant year in Roman politics. He was educated in rhetoric in Rome under the teachers Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro with his brother who excelled at oratory and his father wanted him to study rhetoric toward the practice of law. According to Seneca the Elder, Ovid tended to the emotional, after the death of his brother at 20 years of age, Ovid renounced law and began travelling to Athens, Asia Minor, and Sicily. Ovids first recitation has been dated to around 25 BC, when he was eighteen and he was part of the circle centered on the patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, and seems to have been a friend of poets in the circle of Maecenas. 4.10. 41–54, Ovid mentions friendships with Macer, Propertius, Horace, Ovid was very popular at the time of his early works, but was later exiled by Augustus in AD8. He married three times and divorced twice by the time he was thirty years old and he had one daughter, who eventually bore him grandchildren. His last wife was connected in some way to the influential gens Fabia, the first 25 years of Ovids literary career were spent primarily writing poetry in elegiac meter with erotic themes. The chronology of early works is not secure, tentative dates. 2.18. 19–26 that seems to describe the collection as a published work. The authenticity of some of these poems has been challenged, between the publications of the two editions of the Amores can be dated the premiere of his tragedy Medea, which was admired in antiquity but is no longer extant. Ovid may identify this work in his poetry as the carmen, or song. The Ars Amatoria was followed by the Remedia Amoris in the same year and this corpus of elegiac, erotic poetry earned Ovid a place among the chief Roman elegists Gallus, Tibullus, and Propertius, of whom he saw himself as the fourth member
32.
Fasti (poem)
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The Fasti, sometimes translated as The Book of Days or On the Roman Calendar, is a six-book Latin poem written by the Roman poet Ovid and published in 8 AD. Ovid is believed to have left the Fasti incomplete when he was exiled to Tomis by the emperor Augustus in 8 AD. The poem is a significant, and in some unique, source of fact in studies of religion in ancient Rome. Frazer translated and annotated the work for the Loeb Classical Library series, the popularity and reputation of the Fasti has fluctuated more than that of any of Ovids other works. The poem was read in the 15th–18th centuries, and influenced a number of mythological paintings in the tradition of Western art. Literary critics have regarded the Fasti as an artistic failure. Only the six books which concern the first six months of the year are extant and it may be that Ovid never finished it, that the remaining half is simply lost, or that only six books were intended. Ovid apparently worked on the poem while he was in exile at Tomis, the Tristia, a collection of elegiac letters on the poets exile, mentions the Fasti, and that its completion had been interrupted by his banishment from Rome. Ovid also mentions that he had written the work. However, no ancient source even a fragment from the supposedly six missing books. The Fasti is dedicated to Germanicus, a member of the emperor Augustuss family. The earliest classical calendrical poem which might have inspired Ovid is the Works and Days of Hesiod, which includes mythological lore, astronomical observations, for the astronomical sections, Ovid was preceded by Aratus Phaenomena as well as lost poetry on constellations and probably Germanicus adaptation of Aratus. Ovid often mentions consulting these calendars, such as his reference at 1.11 to pictos fastos, the concept of putting these calendars into verse however, seems to be a uniquely Ovidian concept. Besides his use of calendars and astronomical poetry, Ovids multi-generic, digressive narrative and learned poem depends on the range of ancient poetry. The Fourth Book of Propertius, who claimed to be the Roman Callimachus, might also be a model since it deals with aetiologies of Roman customs. His etymologizing implies an interest in Roman antiquarianism, particularly the works of Varro on etymology and Roman religion. He similarly makes use of much Roman history writing, which must include lost historical poetry as well as the annal tradition (Ovid says in the prologue that one of his sources are ancient annals. In his longer narrative sections, Ovid makes use of tragedy, epic poetry, elegy, for some episodes, the sources Ovid used are untraceable
33.
Caspian Sea
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The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the worlds largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is in a basin located between Europe and Asia. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, the Caspian Sea lies to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the vast steppe of Central Asia. In its northern part, the Caspian Depression lies 28 to 130 m below sea level, the sea bed in the southern part reaches as low as 1023 m below sea level, which is the second lowest natural depression on earth after Lake Baikal. The ancient inhabitants of its coast perceived the Caspian Sea as an ocean, probably because of its saltiness, the sea has a surface area of 371,000 km2 and a volume of 78,200 km3. It has a salinity of approximately 1. 2%, about a third of the salinity of most seawater, the word Caspian is derived from the name of the Caspi, an ancient people who lived to the southwest of the sea in Transcaucasia. Strabo wrote that to the country of the Albanians belongs also the territory called Caspiane, which was named after the Caspian tribe, as was also the sea, but the tribe has now disappeared. Moreover, the Caspian Gates, which is the name of a region in Irans Tehran province, the Iranian city of Qazvin shares the root of its name with that of the sea. In fact, the traditional Arabic name for the sea itself is Bahr al-Qazwin, in classical antiquity among Greeks and Persians it was called the Hyrcanian Ocean. In Persian antiquity, as well as in modern Iran, it is known as the دریای خزر, Daryā-e Khazar, ancient Arabic sources refer to it as Baḥr Gīlān meaning the Gilan Sea. Turkic languages refer to the lake as Khazar Sea, in Turkmen, the name is Hazar deňizi, in Azeri, it is Xəzər dənizi, and in modern Turkish, it is Hazar denizi. An exception is Kazakh, where it is called Каспий теңізі, old Russian sources call it the Khvalyn or Khvalis Sea after the name of Khwarezmia. In modern Russian, it is called Каспи́йское мо́ре, Kaspiyskoye more, the Caspian Sea, like the Black Sea, Namak Lake, and Lake Urmia, is a remnant of the ancient Paratethys Sea. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to tectonic uplift and a fall in sea level. Due to the current inflow of water, the Caspian Sea is a freshwater lake in its northern portions, and is most saline on the Iranian shore. Currently, the salinity of the Caspian is one third that of Earths oceans. The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world, the coastlines of the Caspian are shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. The Caspian is divided into three distinct regions, the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian
34.
Arctic Ocean
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The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the worlds five major oceans. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean, located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere, the Arctic Ocean is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America. It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter, the summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center uses satellite data to provide a record of Arctic sea ice cover. The Arctic may become ice free for the first time in human history within a few years or by 2040, for much of European history, the north polar regions remained largely unexplored and their geography conjectural. He was probably describing loose sea ice known today as growlers or bergy bits, his Thule was probably Norway, early cartographers were unsure whether to draw the region around the North Pole as land or water. The makers of navigational charts, more conservative than some of the more fanciful cartographers, tended to leave the region blank and this lack of knowledge of what lay north of the shifting barrier of ice gave rise to a number of conjectures. In England and other European nations, the myth of an Open Polar Sea was persistent, john Barrow, longtime Second Secretary of the British Admiralty, promoted exploration of the region from 1818 to 1845 in search of this. In the United States in the 1850s and 1860s, the explorers Elisha Kane, even quite late in the century, the eminent authority Matthew Fontaine Maury included a description of the Open Polar Sea in his textbook The Physical Geography of the Sea. Nevertheless, as all the explorers who travelled closer and closer to the reported, the polar ice cap is quite thick. Fridtjof Nansen was the first to make a crossing of the Arctic Ocean. The first surface crossing of the ocean was led by Wally Herbert in 1969, in a dog sled expedition from Alaska to Svalbard, with air support. The first nautical transit of the pole was made in 1958 by the submarine USS Nautilus. Since 1937, Soviet and Russian manned drifting ice stations have extensively monitored the Arctic Ocean, scientific settlements were established on the drift ice and carried thousands of kilometres by ice floes. In World War II, the European region of the Arctic Ocean was heavily contested, the Arctic Ocean occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an area of about 14,056,000 km2, almost the size of Antarctica. The coastline is 45,390 km long and it is surrounded by the land masses of Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and by several islands. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea, countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are, Russia, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States. There are several ports and harbours around the Arctic Ocean In Alaska, in Canada, ships may anchor at Churchill in Manitoba, Nanisivik in Nunavut, Tuktoyaktuk or Inuvik in the Northwest territories
35.
Ingvar the Far-Travelled
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Ingvar the Far-Travelled led an unsuccessful large Viking attack against Persia in 1036–1042. The Rus undertook several Caspian expeditions in the course of the 10th century, the Yngvars saga víðförla describes the last Viking campaign in the Caspian in 1041, adding much legend to the historical facts. Ingvar the Far-Travelled launched this expedition from Sweden, travelling down the Volga River into the land of the Saracens, while there, the Vikings apparently took part in the Georgian-Byzantine Battle of Sasireti in Georgia. A stone to Ingvar’s brother indicates that he went east for gold and these three annals are probably based on Sturla Þórðarsons compilation. There are three theories on Ingvars origin, a second theory suggests that Ingvar was the son of a Swedish prince named Eymundr and who would have been the son of Eric the Victorious and the brother of Olof Skötkonung. The existence of this prince Eymundr has been suggested by Lauritz Weibull, Emund the Old would have had two wives, Tola and Ragnhildr. Tola would have been the mother of Haraldr of Sö179, Önundr would be Anund Gårdske, who was raised in Russia, Eirík would be one of the two pretenders named Eric, Hákon would be Håkan the Red and Ingvar, Ingvar the Far-Travelled. And Önundr would gladly give up all his realm if he had allowed to bargain for Yngvarrs life. It is possible that it was King Anund Jakob or his brother, the participants were evenly distributed along the husbys, and 24 of the 26 Ingvar runestones were from Sweden and 2 from the Geatish district of Östergötland. The folkland of Attundaland did not take part and this was probably done on purpose in order to keep an army in Sweden. Anund Jacob was the brother of Ingegerd Olofsdotter who was married to Yaroslav I of Novgorod and this was done with the help of Varangians, and according to Ingvars saga, they were led by Ingvars father Eymund. In 1030, he had visited Ani, the capital of the Armenian Kingdom, later Yaroslav had trouble with the Pechenegs, a nomad tribe. According to the legendary saga about Ingvar, only one ship returned, the 26 remaining rune stones testify to this as no one mentions a surviving participant. Vikings Varangians Caspian expeditions of the Rus Fischer, Svante, larsson, Mats G. Ett ödesdigert vikingatåg. Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, ISBN 0-674-64465-4 Thunberg, Carl L. Ingvarståget och dess monument. En studie av en runstensgrupp med förslag till ny gruppering, the Saga of Yngvar the Traveller. Ingvarsstenarna i tid och rum Carl L. Thunberg
36.
Richard Hakluyt
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Richard Hakluyt was an English writer. Hakluyt was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, between 1583 and 1588 he was chaplain and secretary to Sir Edward Stafford, English ambassador at the French court. He was the promoter of a petition to James I for letters patent to colonize Virginia. The Hakluyt Society publishes scholarly editions of records of voyages. Some of Hakluyts ancestors established themselves at Yatton, and must have ranked amongst the landowners of the county. A man named Walter Hakelut was knighted in the 34th year of Edward I and later killed at the Battle of Bannockburn, records also show that a Thomas Hakeluytt was in the wardship of Henry VIII and Edward VI. Richard Hakluyt, the second of four sons, was born in Eyton in Herefordshire in 1553, Hakluyts father, also named Richard Hakluyt, was a member of the Worshipful Company of Skinners whose members dealt in skins and furs. He died in 1557 when his son was aged five years. Hakluyts cousin, also named Richard Hakluyt, of the Middle Temple and he took his Bachelor of Arts on 19 February 1574, and shortly after taking his Master of Arts on 27 June 1577, began giving public lectures in geography. He was the first to both the old imperfectly composed and the new lately reformed mappes, globes, spheares. Hakluyt held on to his studentship at Christ Church between 1577 and 1586, although after 1583 he was no longer resident in Oxford, Hakluyt was ordained in 1578, the same year he began to receive a pension from the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers to study divinity. The pension would have lapsed in 1583, but William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, Hakluyts Voyages brought him to the notice of Lord Howard of Effingham, and Sir Edward Stafford, Lord Howards brother-in-law. Although this was his visit to Continental Europe in his life. The manuscript, lost for almost 300 years, was published for the first time in 1877, Hakluyt revisited England in 1584, and laid a copy of the Discourse before Elizabeth I together with his analysis in Latin of Aristotles Politicks. His objective was to recommend the enterprise of planting the English race in the parts of North America. Hakluyts other works during his time in Paris consisted mainly of translations and compilations, with his own dedications and these latter writings, together with a few letters, are the only extant material out of which a biography of him can be framed. Hakluyt interested himself in the publication of the journal of René Goulaine de Laudonnière. The same year, his edition of Peter Martyr dAnghieras De Orbe Nouo Decades Octo saw the light at Paris and this work contains an exceedingly-rare copperplate map dedicated to Hakluyt and signed F. G. it is the first on which the name Virginia appears
37.
William Woodville Rockhill
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William Woodville Rockhill was a United States diplomat, best known as the author of the U. S. s Open Door Policy for China and as the first American to learn to speak Tibetan. Rockhill was born in Philadelphia, the son of Thomas Cadwalader Rockhill and his father died when he was 13 years old and his mother relocated the family to France to escape the Civil War. While in his teens, Rockhill read Abbé Hucs account of his 1844-46 voyage to Lhasa, Rockhill sought out the celebrated Orientalist Léon Feer of the Bibliothèque Nationale, who guided Rockhills learning about the Far East. Rockhill attended the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, where he studied Tibetan, after graduation, Rockhill joined the French Foreign Legion, serving as an officer in Algiers. In 1876, Rockhill returned to the United States, and on December 14,1876, he married his sweetheart, Caroline Tyson, daughter of J. Washington Tyson. The couple purchased a ranch in New Mexico, but Rockhill concluded that ranching was not to his liking. By 1880, he had completed a French language translation of the Tibetan version of the Udanavarga, the Rockhills sold the ranch in 1881 and moved to Montreux, Switzerland, where Williams mother lived. He spent the three years in Europe studying Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Chinese. In 1883, Rockhills wife came into a $70,000 inheritance on the death of a cousin, after perfecting his language skills, he was upgraded to a paid position. In the 1880s, he made two extended expeditions into western China, Mongolia and Tibet and he sent an account of his travels to the Smithsonian Institution for publication, and in 1893, he was awarded the Gold Patrons Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. Rockhill wrote a glossary of Salar in his 1894 book Diary of a Journey through Mongolia, during the administration of President of the United States Grover Cleveland, Rockhill served as Third Assistant Secretary of State from April 17,1894, until February 13,1896. He then served as United States Assistant Secretary of State under United States Secretary of State Richard Olney from February 14,1896, in 1897, President William McKinley named Rockhill U. S. Minister to Greece, a position he held from September 25,1897 and he concurrently served as Minister to Serbia from May 7,1898, to April 27,1899, and as Minister to Romania from May 18,1898, to April 27,1899. With the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, U. S. Secretary of State John Hay, Rockhill was then despatched as President McKinleys special envoy, where he represented the U. S. in the Conference of Ministers that followed the ending of the Boxer Rebellion. At Rockhills urging, the American share of war reparations was used to fund student exchanges between China and the U. S, in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Rockhill U. S. Minister to China, a position he held from June 17,1905 and this appointment came in the wake of the British Expedition to Tibet that had forced Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama into isolation. Learning that Rockhill spoke Tibetan, the Dalai Lama entered into a correspondence that was to last until Rockhills death. In June 1908, Rockhill made a five-day on-foot trek to Mount Wutai to meet the Dalai Lama and successfully convinced the Dalai Lama to seek peace with China and Britain
38.
Hakluyt Society
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In addition to its publishing role, the Society organises and participates in meetings, symposia and conferences relating to the history of geographical exploration and cultural encounter. It is a charity and a non-profitmaking institution administered by a voluntary team of council members and officers. Membership is open to all with an interest in its aims, the Society is named after Richard Hakluyt, a collector and editor of narratives of voyages and travels and other documents relating to English interests overseas. The Society was created at a meeting convened in the London Library, St James’s Square and he took the major role during the Societys formative period, assisted by Corney and Smith, while Murchison occupied little more than a figurehead position. Meetings were initially held in a room at the London Library, but in 1849 transferred to the offices of the Society’s printer in St Martins Lane, from 1872 they were held at the Royal Geographical Society’s premises, originally in Savile Row and subsequently in Kensington Gore. A General Meeting on 4 March 1847 agreed a constitution and a list of works to be published, the Society was to be governed by a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary and 17 elected council members. The Society attracted 220 members in its first two years and its first publication, Bethunes Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, appeared in December 1847, followed by Majors Select Letters of Christopher Columbus. Richard Hakluyts Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America, which the Society had intended for its publication, was postponed until 1850. Early print-runs were relatively small – around 250 copies to satisfy the existing membership, Murchison served as President until his death in 1871, although his position was largely honorary. He was succeeded by Sir David Dundas, a lawyer and politician, and then by Sir Henry Yule, Yule took a more direct interest in the editing of the societys publications than either Murchison or Dundas, and it was his decision that all future volumes should be indexed. R. H. Major, who had taken over as Secretary from Cooley in 1849, held the office until 1858 when his place was taken by the geographer, historian and expedition promoter Clements Markham. Markham served as Secretary 1858–87, and as President 1889–1909, from 1893 he was assisted by William Foster, the East India Company historian and India Office archivist, who served as Secretary until 1902. The first permanent Treasurer, appointed in 1908, was Edward Heawood, in 1908, the final year of Markhams rule, the Society broke with tradition and published its first post-1700 text, Bolton Corneys Voyage of Captain Don Felipe Gonzalez. In 1909 Markham was succeeded as President by Sir Albert Gray, from this time onwards the Society began to extend its activity beyond that of publication. The period also saw the emergence of women as editors and translators, notably Sigfus Blondal, Bertha Philpotts, Lavinia Anstey, membership increased, largely on account of institutional subscriptions which by 1911 accounted for half of the 440 members. Sir William Foster, the former Secretary, served as President 1928–1945, the main activity of the Society is the publication of scholarly editions of primary sources on the voyages and travels undertaken by individuals in many parts of the globe. These include early accounts dealing with the geography, ethnology and natural history of the regions visited, the Society has to date published over 200 editions in some 350 volumes. All editions are published in English, translations from Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French or Dutch have regularly appeared, and occasional translations from Russian, Greek, Latin, Amharic, Mandarin, Persian or Arabic
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Chronology of European exploration of Asia
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This is a chronology of the early European exploration of Asia. 515 BC Scylax explores the Indus and the sea route across the Indian Ocean to Egypt, 250-120 BC Greco-Bactrian rule in parts of Central Asia and parts of the Punjab region. 180 BC-10 AD Rule of the Indo-Greek kingdom in parts of northwestern India,30 BC-640 AD With the acquisition of Ptolemaic Egypt, The Romans begin trading with India. The Empire now has a connection to the Spice trade Egypt had established beginning in 118 BC.100 AD-166 AD Romano-Chinese relations begin. Ptolemy writes of the Golden Chersonese and the port of Kattigara, now identified as Óc Eo in southern Vietnam, then part of Jiaozhou. The Chinese historical texts describe Roman embassies, from a land they called Daqin, 2nd century Roman traders reach Siam, Cambodia, Sumatra, and Java. 161 An embassy from Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius or his successor Marcus Aurelius reaches Chinese Emperor Huan of Han at Luoyang,568 The Eastern Roman general Zemarchus travels to Samarkand and the court of the Western Turkic Kaganate. 639-640 The Muslims subjugate Egypt, thus severing most direct Eastern-Roman trade with India, 1160-1173 The Navarrese Jewish Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visits Syria, Palestine, Baghdad, Persia, and the Arabian Peninsula. 1180-1186 Pethahiah of Regensburg goes to Baghdad, 13th century Silk Road trade reaches its height during the height of the Pax Mongolica, the relative peace in Asia during the widespread unification under the Mongol Empire. 1245-1247 The Italian Franciscan Giovanni da Pian del Carpine appointed Papal Legate and accompanied by Stephen of Bohemia, First European embassy to the Great Khan. 1245-1248 The Italian Ascelin of Lombardia, Simon of St Quentin, 1249-1251 Andrew of Longjumeau guide a French ambassador to the great Kuyuk Khan. His brother Guy and several others — John Goderiche, John of Carcassonne, Herbert Le Sommelier, Gerbert of Sens, Robert, a certain William, and they reached Talas in northwestern Kyrgyzstan. ≈1254 The Flemish William of Rubruck reached Mongolia through Central Asia, 1264-≈1269 First travel of the Italians Niccolò and Maffeo Polo to China. In 1266, they reach Kublai Khans seat at Dadu, now known as Beijing, 1271-1295 Second trip of Niccolò and Maffeo Polo to China. This time with Marco, Niccolos son, who would write an account of their experiences. ~1321-1330/1338 The French Dominican missionary Jordanus, made bishop over the whole Indian subcontinent in 1329, wrote down his travels through India, 1338-1353 The Italian Giovanni de Marignolli, one of four chief envoys sent by Pope Benedict XII to Peking. 1401-1402 Travel of Payo Gómez de Sotomayor, first ambassador of Henry III of Castile to the Timurid Empire, 1403-1404 Travel of Ruy González de Clavijo, second ambassador of Henry III of Castile to the Timurid Empire. He passed along the Black Sea coast of Turkey to Trabzon and then overland through Armenia, 1420-1436 Travels of the Italian explorer Niccolò Da Conti to India and Southeast Asia
40.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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French Flanders
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French Flanders is a part of the historical County of Flanders in present-day France. The region lies in the region of Hauts-de-France and roughly corresponds to the arrondissements of Lille, Douai. Together with French Hainaut, it makes up the French Department of Nord, French Flanders is mostly flat marshlands in the coal-rich area just south of the North Sea. When French national military power returned under the Bourbons with King Louis XIV The Sun King, the region now called French Flanders was once part of the feudal state County of Flanders, then part of the Southern Netherlands. The region was ceded to the Kingdom of France, and became part of the province of Flanders and Hainaut. Rich in coal, facing the North Sea, bordered by usually powerful neighbors, the traditional language of Walloon Flanders, is Picard. In 2008, the success of the movie Bienvenue chez les Chtis illuminated this part of France to a wide audience, Walloon Flanders Burgundian Netherlands Frisians Greater Netherlands Seventeen Provinces Wallonia Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustré,1952. French Flanders Ethnologue Report for West Flemish Flemish in France The Extent of Flemish in France in 1970, contains language maps
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Nord-Pas-de-Calais
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Nord-Pas-de-Calais (French pronunciation, is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Hauts-de-France and it consisted of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. Nord-Pas-de-Calais borders the English Channel, the North Sea, Belgium, the majority of the region was once part of the historical Netherlands, but gradually became part of France between 1477 and 1678, particularly during the reign of king Louis XIV. The historical French provinces that preceded Nord-Pas-de-Calais are Artois, French Flanders, French Hainaut and these provincial designations are still frequently used by the inhabitants. Its administrative centre and largest city is Lille, other major towns include Valenciennes, Lens, Douai, Béthune, Dunkirk, Maubeuge, Boulogne, Arras, Cambrai and Saint-Omer. Nord-Pas-de-Calais combines the names of the constituent departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, the regional council, however, spells the name Nord-Pas de Calais. The northern part of the region was historically a part of the County of Flanders and those who wish to evidence the historical links the region has with Belgium and the Netherlands prefer to call this region the French Low Countries, which also means French Netherlands in French. Other alternative names are Région Flandre-Artois, Hauts-de-France, and Picardie-du-Nord, see also, History of Nord-Pas-de-Calais Inhabited since prehistoric times, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region has always been a strategic regions in Europe. French President Charles de Gaulle, who was born in Lille, over the centuries, it was conquered in turn by the Celtic Belgae, the Romans, the Germanic Franks, England, the Spanish and Austrian Netherlands, and the Dutch Republic. After the final French annexation in the early 18th century, much of the region was occupied by Germany during the First. By the 9th century, most inhabitants north of Lille spoke a dialect of Middle Dutch and this linguistic border is still evident today in the place names of the region. Beginning in the 9th century, the border began a steady move to north. By the end of the 13th century, the border had shifted to the river Lys in the south. Boulogne, Artois, and Flanders were fiefs of the French crown, while Hainaut, Calais was an English possession from 1347 to 1558, when it was recovered by the French throne. With the death of the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold in 1477, thus, most of the territories of what is now Nord-Pas-de-Calais were reunited to the Burgundian inheritance, which had passed through Maries marriage to the House of Habsburg. During the Italian Wars much of the conflict between France and Spain occurred in the region and it was also a base for Spanish support of French Catholics in the French Wars of Religion. Beginning with the annexation of Artois in 1659, most of the current Nord department territory had been acquired by the time of the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678, the current borders were mostly established by the time of the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697. The area, previously divided among the French provinces of Flanders, Artois, under Napoleon, the French boundary was extended to include all of Flanders and present-day Belgium until the Congress of Vienna in 1815 restored the original French boundary
