…Samsam marches to Baghdad. Before any confrontation…

The Chinese encyclopedia Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature, yet another of the Four Great Books of Song, is completed in 986, with a total of one thousand volumes representing the work of some twenty-two hundred authors.

Samuel, a brilliant general and good politician, has managed to turn the fortunes to the Bulgarians.

In 986, Basil II leads thirty thouand soldiers in a campaign against Bulgaria.

The commanders of the eastern armies do not take part in the campaign because they are fighting with the Arabs.

The imperial army marches from Odrin via Plovdiv to reach Sredets (Sofia).

According to Leo Diaconus, the objective of their Emperor was to subdue the Bulgarians with one strike.

After the capture of Serdica, which is a strategic fortress between the northeastern and southwestern Bulgarian lands, Basil intends to continue his campaign towards Samuel's main strongholds in Macedonia.

On his way to Serdica (the Byzantine name of Sredetz, today Sofia, the capital city of modern day Bulgaria), Basil leaves a strong company under Leon Melissenos to guard the rear of his army.

When he finally reaches the walls of the city, Basil builds a fortified camp and besieges the fortress.

The siege lasts for twenty days of fruitless assaults, until shortage of food occurs in the imperial army.

Their attempts to find provisions in the surrounding country are stopped by the Bulgarians, who burn crops and even take the cattle of the Greek forces.

In the end, the city garrison breaks out of the walls, killing many enemy soldiers and burning all of the siege equipment, which the inexperienced imperial generals had placed too close to the city walls.

As a result of the successful Bulgarian actions, the imperial forces are no longer capable of taking the city with a direct assault.

They also cannot exhaust the defenders with hunger because, after their supplies are cut, the Greeks themselves have to deal with this problem.

In addition, an army led by Samuel marches into the mountains at the Greeks’ rear.

In the meantime, instead of securing the way for retreat, Leon Melissenos pulls back to Plovdiv.

This action is an additional reason for Basil to lift the siege.

The commander of the Western armies, Kontostephanos, persuades him that Melissenos had set off to Constantinople to take his throne.

The imperial army retreats from the Sofia Valley towards Ihtiman, where it stops for the night.

The rumors that the Bulgarians have barred the nearby mountain routes stir commotion among the soldiers and on the following day the retreat continues in growing disorder.

When the Bulgarians under Samuel see this, they rush to the enemy camp and the retreat turns to flight.

The imperial advance guard manages to squeeze through slopes which have not yet been taken by the Bulgarian attackers.

The rest of the army is surrounded by the Bulgarians.

Only the elite Armenian unit from the infantry manages to break out with heavy casualties and to lead their Emperor to safety through secondary routes.

Enormous numbers of the Empire’s soldiers perish in the battle; the rest are captured along with the Imperial insignia.

The disaster of the campaign in Bulgaria in 986 is a blow to the consolidation of the monocracy of Basil II, who also loses his personal treasure to the victors.

Soon after the Battle of the Gates of Trajan, the nobility in Asia Minor, led by the general Bardas Phokas, rebels against Basil II for three years.

Samsam captures Basra and Khuzestan in early 986, forcing the two brothers to flee to Fakhr al-Dawla's territory.

After the defeat of Saffar, Sharaf himself marches against Samsam.

Sharaf occupies Ahwaz, then sends his forces against Wasit, which surrenders to him.

From here, …

Erik the Red, naming the newly discovered large western land Greenland, had explored the island’s ice-free eastern fjords for three years.

As earlier settlers have long occupied most of Iceland’s good land, Erik finds no shortage of willing colonists.

He leads twenty-five ships in 986 in a contemporary wave of immigration to establish colonies in southwestern Greenland.

Only fourteen of Erik’s ships had made it around Cape Farwell, but this number is sufficient to establish two settlements: the Eastern and, three hundred miles further north, …

…the Western.

Eric himself settles at Brattahlid (Tunigdliarfik) in Greenland, where his wife builds a Christian church.

Mesoamerican migration accounts often state that Tollan was ruled by Quetzalcoatl (or Kukulkan in Yucatec and Q'uq'umatz in K'iche'), a godlike mythical figure who was later sent into exile from Tollan and went on to found a new city elsewhere in Mesoamerica.

Claims of Toltec ancestry and a ruling dynasty founded by Quetzalcoatl have been made by such diverse civilizations as the Aztec, the Quiché and the Itza' Mayas.

In Aztec legend, there is not one supposed Toltec ruler identified with Quetzalcoatl, but two: the first ruler and founder of the Toltec dynasty, and the last ruler, who saw the end of the Toltec glory and was forced into humiliation and exile.

The first is described as a valiant triumphant warrior, but the last as a feeble and self-doubting old man.

This caused scholars such as Michel Graulich (2002) and Susan D. Gillespie (1989) to suggest that the general Aztec cyclical view of time, where events repeated themselves at the end and beginning of cycles or eras, was being inscribed into the historical record by the Aztecs, making it futile to attempt to distinguish between a historical Topiltzin Ce Acatl and a Quetzalcoatl deity.

The second Toltec Quetzalcoatl supposedly fled in 986 from Tula to …

...Chichen Itza, in southeastern Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where (according to both Central Mexican and Maya annals) he becomes known as Kukulcan, a Maya translation of his name.

From the time of Quetzalcoatl’s emigration from Tula to Yucatan (and perhaps several generations before) similar art and architecture appear at both Tula and Chichen Itza.

The presence of stylistic traits associated with Tula in Chichén Itzá is also taken as evidence for a Toltec horizon.

Especially the nature of interaction between Tula and Chichén Itzá has been controversial with scholars arguing for either military conquest of Chichén Itzá by Toltecs, Chichén Itzá establishing Tula as a colony or only loose connections between the two.

Song Emperor Taizong seeks to take advantage of the young Liao emperor by launching an invasion on the Liao Southern Capital (Beijing) in the contentious Sixteen Prefectures in 986.

Three large forces are sent to three different strategic locations on the approach to the Southern Capital.

While initially successful, the young emperor, along with the Empress Dowager, leads a Khitan cavalry force and defeats the Song forces at the Battle of the Qigou Pass in June.

The Empress Dowager appoints Yelü Xiuge as her senior general and continues attacks on the Song in retaliation until the next year.