The new Muslim rulers of Sicily have…

The Khitans, a collection of Mongol tribes ruled by a dynasty known as the Liao (meaning “iron”), have, by 950, occupied most of northeastern China as far south as the Hwang He.

Fajsz is the only known son of Jutotzas, the third son of Árpád who had led the Hungarian tribes' confederation at the time of their conquest of the Carpathian Basin between around 895 and 907.

In the period starting with Árpád's death, fundamental changes have happened in the government of the tribal confederation.

This time is marked more by the various tribes acting in concert for raids than with the tribes acting under a strong central authority.

Hungarian visitors at Constantinople—including Termatzus, a great-grandson of Árpád – had informed Emperor Constantine VII around 948 that the "first chief" of the Hungarians "comes by succession of Árpád's family.”

Constantine VII also mentions that Fajsz was the head of the confederation of the Hungarian tribes around 950.

An illuminated manuscript produced in Constantinople around 950 (later famous as the Paris Psalter) displays its classical borrowings in the most famous of its miniatures, a portrait of David composing the Psalms, playing the harp at the side of the seated female figure of "Melody", set in a lush pastoral landscape closely paralleling the Hellenistic-Roman art of Pompeii.

Around this central group are the figure of Echo, various animals charmed by music, and even a male figure symbolizing the town of Bethlehem.

The whole composition was likely modeled on a Greco-Roman wall painting representing Orpheus charming the world with his music.

Together with Basil I's Homilies of St. Gregory Nazianzus, the Paris Psalter is considered a key monument of the so-called Macedonian Renaissance in Byzantine art during the tenth century.

This and other miniatures are so Hellenistic in execution and so unlike the received notion of what medieval art in general and Byzantine art in particular should look like, that most nineteenth century authorities dated the manuscript to the time of Justinian.

The Byzantists Hugo Buchthal and Kurt Weitzmann, however, conclusively demonstrated that the book was created in the tenth century.

Al-Farabi writes commentaries on a number of Aristotelian texts and composes several original treatises on psychology, mathematics, and the occult sciences.

He endeavors, in both his commentaries and original compositions, to demonstrate the unity of Plato and Aristotle and to prove the primacy of philosophy.

Influenced by mystical Neoplatonism, he attempts to reconcile Islam with philosophy; maintaining that, in contrast to philosophy, religion represents the truth in a symbolic form for nonphilosophers.

In his “Grand Book on Music,” he describes in detail the musical instruments of the age and explains the rhythmic modes currently in use.

He dies around 950 at around age eighty.

Siyaka had attempted to proclaim total independence after 949 on becoming the Paramara king of Malwa, but Rashtrakuta emperor Krishna III subdues him.

The Karanga, a clan of the Shona people, settle on the low, boulder-covered hill called the Acropolis at the site of Great Zimbabwe, and begin developing a trading center here around 950.

Creative forces in Judaism have emerged in North Africa and especially in Muslim Spain.

The tolerant Arab rulers who have conquered southern Spain have been generally reasonable in their treatment of the Jewish communities who, present in Iberia since Roman times, had nearly been exterminated by the Christian Visigoths.

With the establishment in 950 of the Academy at Córdoba, Spain becomes the most prosperous Jewish center in the Mediterranean.

Hasdai Ibn Shaprut becomes doctor and adviser to the powerful Umayyad caliph 'Abd ar-Rahman III, Caliph of Córdoba.

Abd ar-Rahman receives in Córdoba an embassy in 950 from count Borrell II of Barcelona, by which the northern county recognizes the caliphal supremacy in exchange for peace and mutual support.

Hugh had retired to Provence, but continued to carry the royal title until his death in 947.

Lothair II, although he holds the title of rex Italiae, will never succeeded in exercising power here.

He had been betrothed in 931 and had been married, on December 12, 947, to the fifteen-year-old Adelaide, the spirited and intelligent daughter of Rudolph II of Burgundy and Bertha of Swabia.

Their marriage is part of a political settlement designed to conclude a peace between her father and his.

In 933, Hugh of Arles had given up his kingdom (Provence) to his inveterate enemy Rudolph II, who merged the two kingdoms into a new Kingdom of Arles, but died in 937.

The couple have a daughter, Emma, born as early as 948, who will be married in 966 to the Carolingian Lothair of France.

Lothair's power in Italy is nominal.

From the time of the successful uprising of the nobles in 945, when Hugh had been forced into exile, Berengar of Ivrea has kept all real power and patronage in his hands.

Lothair's brief "reign" comes to an end with his death on November 22, 950, presumably poisoned by Berengar II, leaving Adelaide widowed before her twentieth birthday.

Berengar II crowns himself king with his son Adalbert of Italy as his co-ruler and heir apparent.

Failing to receive widespread support for his right to the crown, Berengar II attempts to legitimize his reign and tries to force Adelaide, the respective daughter, daughter-in-law and widow of the last three Italian kings, into marriage with Adalbert.

Adelaide fiercely refuses and is imprisoned by Berengar II at Garda Lake.

Guo Wei, a Han Chinese, serves as the Assistant Military Commissioner at the court of the Later Han Dynasty, a regime ruled by Shatuo Turks.

A teenager has come to the throne of the Later Han in 948 after the death of the founding emperor, Gaozu.

Guo Wei leads a successful coup against the teenage emperor and declared himself emperor of the new Later Zhou Dynasty on New Year’s Day in 951.

Posthumously known as Emperor Taizu of Later Zhou, Guo Wei is the first Han Chinese ruler of northern China since 923.

He is regarded as an able leader who attempted reforms designed to alleviate burdens faced by the peasantry.

His short rule will be considered vigorous and well-organized.