The Rise of Fontevraud Abbey: A Revolutionary…

The earliest recorded actual use of a magnetized needle for navigational purposes is recorded in Zhu Yu's book Pingzhou Table Talks, written from 1111 to 1117 and published in 1119.

Use of the magnetic navigational needle will lead to the development of a reliable compass.

Zhu Yu also writes of the earliest known use of separate hull compartments in ships.

David IV of Georgia, following the annexation of Kakheti, in 1105, routs a Seljuq punitive force at the Battle of Ertzukhi, leading to momentum that helps him to secure the key fortresses of Samshvilde, Rustavi, Gishi, and Lori between 1110 and 1118.

Problems now begin to crop up for David.

His nobles continue to make problems for him, along with the city of Tbilisi which remains under Seljuq control.

David IV radically reforms his military.

Between 1018 an 1020, he resettles in Georgia a Kipchak tribe of fourteen thousand families from the Northern Caucasus.

Every Georgian and Kipchak family is obliged to provide one soldier with a horse and weapons.

This fifty-six thousand-man-army is entirely dependent on the King.

Kipchaks are settled in different regions of Georgia.

Some are settled in Inner Kartli province, others are given lands along the border.

They will quickly assimilate into Georgian society.

Antioch and the other Crusader States are constantly at war with the Muslim states of Northern Syria and the Jazeerah, principally Aleppo and Mosul.

After Ridwan of Aleppo died in 1113, there had been a period of a few years peace.

However, Roger of Salerno, ruling Antioch as regent for the child Bohemond II, had not taken advantage of Ridwan's death; likewise, Baldwin II, Count of Edessa, and Pons, Count of Tripoli, had looked after their own interests and had not allied with Roger against Aleppo, which had come under the rule of the Artuqid atabeg Ilghazi of Mardin in 1117.

The marriage of Pons to Cecile of France, the widow of his mentor Tancred, Prince of Galilee, and daughter of Philip I of France, had helped to reconcile the Norman and Provençal Crusaders, who had fallen out during the Siege of Antioch.

In 1118, Pons had allied with Baldwin II, newly crowned as king of Jerusalem.

Roger had captured Azaz in 1118, leaving Aleppo open to attack from the Crusaders; in response, Ilghazi invades the Principality in 1119.

Baldwin and Pons march north to aid Roger, who decides not to wait for them, and he and his army of seven hundred knights and three thousand foot soldiers, including five hundred Armenian cavalry, are slaughtered at the Battle of Ager Sanguinis; Roger is killed by a sword in the face at the foot of the great jeweled cross which had served as his standard.

The rest of the army is completely destroyed; only two knights survive.

One of them, Raynald Mazoir, takes refuge in the fort of Sarmada to wait for King Baldwin, but is soon taken captive by Ilghazi.

Among the other prisoners is likely Walter the Chancellor, who will later wrote an account of the battle.

The massacre leads to the name of the battle, ager sanguinis, Latin for "the field of blood."

The battle has proved that the Muslims can defeat a Crusader army without the help of the Seljuqs.

However, Ilghazi does not advance to Antioch, where Patriarch Bernard is organizing whatever defense he can.

Instead, llghazi is pushed back by Baldwin and Pons on August 14, and Baldwin assumes the regency of Antioch.

The defeat has left Antioch severely weakened, and subject to repeated attacks by the Muslims in the following decade.

As a result, the Principality will eventually come under the influence of Constantinople.

Antioch becomes a vassal state of Jerusalem, after Roger of Salerno is killed on June 27, 1119, at the Ager Sanguinis (the Field of Blood).

King Baldwin II will serve as regent until 1126, although Baldwin will spend much of this time in captivity in Aleppo.

Bahram's court is accompanied by a Seljuq amil or tax collector and requires the dispatch of his eldest son, Daulat Shah, to the Seljuq court at Merv as a hostage.

It is believed that Bahram raided India once, attacking Sapadalaksha or eastern Rajputana.

Bahram, faced with a rebellious faction led by Muhammad ibn 'Ali, marches an army to Multan in 1119.

He asks for Muhammad's obedience but is refused.

The ensuing battle in western Punjab results in Muhammad's death and the deaths of most of his sons.

Bahram appoints Salar Husain ibn Ibrahim 'Alawi as his governor in India.

Alexios' death means that the ambition of reconquering all of Asia Minor has been left to his thirty-one-year old son, John II Komnenos.

Early in John's reign, the Turks are pressing forward against the imperial frontier in western Asia Minor, and he is determined to drive them back.

The Seljuqs cut the land route to the city of Antalya on the southern coast of Anatolia in 1119.

John II and Axouch the Grand Domestic recapture Laodicea and Sozopolis, reopening land communication with Antalya.

This route is especially important as it also leads to Cilicia and the Crusader states of Syria.

The crusaders actually control only a few strongholds in Palestine, and pilgrims to the Christian holy places are often endangered by marauding Muslim bands.

Pitying the plight of such pilgrims, eight or nine French knights, led by Hugues de Payens and Geoffrey of Saint-Omer, have vowed to devote themselves to their protection and to form a religious community for that purpose.

They request of Warmund, the new Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem permission to elect a master to lead them to defend the kingdom.

Hugues de Payens is elected their master and Warmund charges them with the duty of keeping the roads safe from thieves and others who are routinely robbing and killing pilgrims en route to Jerusalem.

King Baldwin II gives them quarters in a wing of the royal palace in the area of the former Jewish Temple, and from this they derive their name: the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or Knights Templar.

Adelaide, the widow of Roger I of Sicily, had ruled until her son had come of age in 1112.

Palermo is the capital of Norman Sicily under the Hautevilles.

Descended from the Vikings, they have come to appreciate and admire the rich and layered culture in which they now find themselves.

Many Normans in Sicily adopt some of the attributes of Muslim rulers in dress, language, literature, and even in the presence of palace eunuchs and according to some accounts, a harem.

Like the multiethnic Caliphate of Córdoba of the previous age, the court of Roger II has becomes the most luminous center of culture in the Mediterranean, both from Europe and the Middle East.

This attracts scholars, scientists, poets, artists and artisans of all kinds.

In Norman Sicily, still with heavy Arab influence, laws are issued in the language of the community to whom they are addressed: the governance is by the rule of law; there is justice.

Muslims, Jews, Greeks of the Empire, Lombards, and Normans work together to form a society that fosters extraordinary architecture.

Alfonso retakes several more communities in the vicinity of Cervera and …