The imperial capital, Constantinople, becomes the largest city of the world in about 1153, taking the lead from Merv in the Seljuq Empire.
Anna Komnene dies in 1153, leaving the “Alexiad,” a partial but valuable account of the reign of her father, the emperor Alexios I.
Within the Alexiad, she describes the political and military history of the Eastern Roman Empire during the reign of her father (1081-1118), making it one of the most important sources of information on the empire in the High Middle Ages.
As well as this, within the Alexiad, the First Crusade's interaction with the Eastern Roman Empire is documented (despite being written nearly fifty years after the crusade), which highlights the conflicting perceptions of the East and West in the early twelfth century.
The text is written in some form of artificial Attic Greek, and it is one of only a few examples of a woman writing about the political and military history of her own country, and it is also a valuable source as to ascertain the Imperial Greeks’ perception of the Crusaders.
Most likely, she can be considered the first woman historian of the western world.
