Daily Medieval

At the end of yesterday's post on the Auld Alliance I mentioned that France (or the Franks) had formed earlier alliances, some of them ...

Established during the Golden Age of Islam in the newly founded capital of Baghdad , the Bayt al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) had a simple goal:...

Harun al-Rashid (c.763 - 24 March 809) was the fifth ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate , his reign considered the start of Islam's Golden A...

This illustration and the post that follows will make more sense if you read Part 1 . So Caliph Harun al-Rashid has given his vizier, Ja...

One of the stories that is found in every fragment/manuscript of the 1001 Nights  is called by two different titles: "The Three Apples...

Yesterday I mentioned that you would know who Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā al-Barmakī, an Abbasid vizier, was, even if you did not recognize the name. Y...

The Royal Frankish Annals cover the era from Charlemagne's grandfather to his son. In it we find that Caliph Harun al-Rashid gave an ele...

Collections of animals for private amusement or public display have existed for a long time. There is a current trend toward calling them ...