West Asia in the medieval world (500 – 1500). A thousand years of kingdoms, caliphates, steppe empires and trading cities between the fall of Rome and the voyages that joined the hemispheres.
From 762 to 833 the Abbasid caliphs paid translators in Baghdad to turn Greek, Persian and Indian works of medicine, astronomy and mathematics into Arabic.
· AD 830In 1896–97 Solomon Schechter emptied the Ben Ezra Synagogue's geniza in Fustat. Cambridge counts 193,000 fragments, Bible leaves to a Maimonides letter.
· 1100Rukn al-Din Khurshah surrendered to Hülegü on November 19, 1256. Juvayni, Hülegü's secretary, then sorted the Alamut library, keeping some books and burning the rest.
· 1256Baghdad fell to Hülegü on February 13, 1258; the caliph died on February 20. A chronicle counted "more than 800,000" dead; copyists made it two million.
· 1258In 1142 the Count of Tripoli gave Hisn al-Akrad to the Hospitallers. In 1271 Sultan Baybars took its keep with a forged surrender letter, Ibn al-Furat records.
· 1271He left Tangier on June 14, 1325; dictation ended in Fez on December 9, 1355. Delhi's salary and Mali's court are recorded; the Bulghar ride is invented.
· 1325From 1966 to 1973 David Whitehouse dug Siraf, a Persian Gulf port, and found Chinese stoneware in a mosque platform of about 800. Its end is still argued.
· 1966
