Foundations of Medieval Europe
The 313 CE decree issued by Constantine and Licinius that permanently ended official Roman persecution of Christians and restored confiscated church assets.
What is the Edict of Milan?
The Mali emperor whose 1324 CE pilgrimage to Mecca distributed so much gold that it destabilized local economies in Cairo.
Who was Mansa Musa?
The 622 CE migration of Prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina, marking Year 1 of the Islamic calendar.
What is the Hijrah?
The leader who united nomadic tribes to build the largest contiguous land empire in world history.
Who was Genghis Khan?
The epidemic bacterium (Yersinia pestis) spread via flea-infested rats along Mongol trade routes that killed 30–60% of Europe's population.
What was the Black Death?
The self-sufficient rural economic structure that bound peasant agricultural labor to regional manorial estates in exchange for physical protection.
What is manorialism?
Monolithic granite stone towers erected as royal funerary markers in the Kingdom of Aksum, designed to imitate multi-story buildings.
What are stelae (or stela)?
The state-sponsored research center and translation institute established in Abbasid Baghdad to translate classical texts into Arabic.
What was the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah)?
The rapid Mongol messenger and postal relay network that utilized stations spaced 25–30 miles apart to deliver imperial messages across Eurasia.
What was the Yam System?
The Pope who launched the First Crusade in 1095 at the Council of Clermont after receiving an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I.
Who was Pope Urban II?
The first Frankish king to convert directly to Catholic Christianity around 496 CE, establishing strong Papal-Frankish political and military alliances.
Who was King Clovis I?
Hereditary West African oral historians, musicians, and diplomatic advisors responsible for preserving royal genealogies and epic poetry.
What is a Griot (Jali / Djeli)?
The Persian polymath whose Canon of Medicine standardized European and Islamic medical practice for centuries.
Who was Ibn Sina (Avicenna)?
Metal passport tablets issued by Mongol authorities that granted diplomats, merchants, and officials safe passage, provisions, and tax exemptions.
What is a Paiza?
The comprehensive legal codification compiled under Byzantine Emperor Justinian I that formed the foundation for modern civil law.
What is the Corpus Juris Civilis (Justinian Code)?
Autonomous foreign tribes bound by treaty (foedus) to provide military service to the Roman Empire in exchange for land or subsidies.
What are foederati?
The King of Aksum who adopted Christianity around 330 CE and minted Africa's first gold and silver coins.
Who was King Ezana?
The period of cultural coexistence and mutual intellectual exchange among Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval Iberia (Al-Andalus).
What is Convivencia?
The Venetian merchant who traveled along Mongol-secured trade routes and recorded detailed accounts of East Asian cities and courts.
Who was Marco Polo?
The year in which Romulus Augustulus was deposed, symbolically marking the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
What is 476 CE?
The monastic framework written around 529 CE at Monte Cassino that structured daily life around a balanced routine of prayer, study, and physical labor.
What is the Rule of Saint Benedict?
The semi-legendary 3rd-century patriarch who united Soninke clans to lay the foundation of the Kingdom of Ghana (Wagadou).
Who was King Dinga Cissé?
The Abbasid mathematician who developed algebra and standardized Hindu-Arabic numerals across the Mediterranean world.
Who was Al-Khwarizmi?
The harsh military law code enforced across the Mongol Empire that eradicated banditry along trade corridors like the Silk Road.
What is the Yassa?
The major 1381 agrarian uprising in Britain triggered by post-Plague labor shortages and landlord attempts to freeze peasant wages.
What was the English Peasants' Revolt?