Also not her.
In
Europe, at about the same time, the world was a very dark place. Pepin founded the Carolingian Dynasty over
the Franks a year after the founding of the Abbasid Caliphate, and in 768
Charlemagne would proclaim himself “Emperor of the Romans.” The barbarians were growing civilized, or at
least more Christianized, and the power of the Church advanced hand in hand
with the power of the early warrior kings.
As the Vikings raided further into Christian territory, many looked
toward both pope and king for salvation.
In such an age the idea of apocalypse took on an imminence that escapes
most modern peoples, with only strength of arms and devotion standing between
these small kingdoms and the end of days.
Also
not her.
In 868
the earliest known printed book appeared in China. Missionaries from the crumbling Byzantine
Empire penetrated deeper into the barbarous lands north of the Caspian Sea, and
invented the Cyrillic alphabet as a means of converting the pagans to
Christianity. Stones were moved across
vast distances for the sake of building churches and conquering the idolatrous
mind. Iceland was settled by
Norsemen. Somewhere in the jungles of
Africa, great kingdoms flourished and then disappeared, and kings whose wealth
could have purchased half of Europe lived and died south of the Equator.
Also
not her.
In 1049
Pope Leo IX ascended the papal throne.
Five years after, the Church faced a final Schism between East and West,
with a scrap of Latin standing between church elders on both sides of the
argument. In 1066 William the Conqueror
invaded England, and crowned himself King of England following the Battle of
Hastings. An emperor walked barefoot
through the snow and begged the forgiveness of a pope. The first of the Crusades began, at the
urging of Pope Urban II in 1099.
Also
not her.
Orders
of monks were formed, and these intrigued against one another. The king schemed against the pope, the pope
schemed against the king, with the nobles and monks divided between these two
powers. In 1149 the Second Crusade
failed, and the Crusader State was consigned to the annals of history. Honen Shonen founded the “Pure Land” sect in
Japan, marking the beginning of a Buddhist sectarian movement in that
country. Turkic Muslim invaders sacked
the university at Nalanda.
Also
not her.
In 1204
Constantinople was attacked during the Fourth Crusade. In 1206 Ghengis Khan established the Mongol
Empire. The Mongols would go on to
redraw the map of the world, creating one of the mightiest empires in history,
stretching from East Asia into Europe.
In 1215, John of England was forced to sign the Magna Carta, and
thereafter the power of the English monarch was limited by this binding
document. In 1295 Marco Polo published
his account of journeys in China.
Also
not her.
On
Friday, October 13, 1307, the Knights Templar were rounded up by Philip of
France and murdered. During the same
year the papacy was moved to Avignon. In
1337 the Hundred Years’ War began, and in 1347 the Black Death ravaged Europe. The Mongols fell from power in China, and the
Bible was translated into English by John Wycliffe.
Also
not her.
And
then Al Hakim I was ruling from Cairo.
He, who was the son of Al Mustansir II, who was the son of Al Hasan, who
was the son of Abu Bakr, who was the son of Al Mustarshid, who was the son of
Al Mustazhir, who was the son of Al Muktadi, who was the son of Muhammad
Dhakirat, who was the son of Al Qa’im I, who was the son of Al Qadir, who was
the son of Al Muttaki, who was the son of Al Muktadir, who was the son of Al
Mu’tadid, who was the son of Al Muwafflak, who was the son of Al Mutawakkil,
who was Himself, who was Friend To The Character From a Science Fiction Novel
That Has Yet To Be Written, who was the son of Al Mu’tasim I, who was the son
of Harun Al Rashid, who was the son of Al Mahdi, who was the son of Al Mansur,
who was the son of Muhammad, who was the son of Ali, who was the son of Abd
Allah, who was the son of Al Abbas, who was uncle to the Prophet.
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