Zwentibold of Lotharingia: An Illegitimate Prince and…

Li Maozhen wants to add Shannan West to his territory, so he requests to be Shannan West's military governor, fully expecting that Emperor Zhaozong will allow him to retain both Fengxiang and Shannan West.

Instead, Emperor Zhaozong issues an edict making him the military governor of Shannan West and Wuding (headquartered in modern Hanzhong) Circuits, while making the chancellor Xu Yanruo the military governor of Fengxiang.

Despite the misgivings of the chancellor Du Rangneng, Emperor Zhaozong launches a campaign against Li Maozhen, with Du in charge of the logistics and Li Sizhou the Prince of Qin in command of the imperial guards, which Emperor Zhaozong has rebuilt with new recruits.

The imperial army has low morale and little battle experience, however, and when Li Sizhou sets out to engage Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu's experienced armies, the army collapses.

Li Maozhen approaches Chang'an, demanding Du's death.

Emperor Zhaozong capitulates, ordering Du to commit suicide and allowing Li Maozhen to retain Fengxiang, Shannan West, Wuding, and Tianxiong.

It is said that after this point, Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu, in alliance with the chancellor Cui Zhaowei, were heavily influencing imperial governance, such that the emperor would not dare to carry out any measures that they opposed.

Vladimir is mainly remembered for his attempt to eliminate Christianity in Bulgaria and the reinstitution of paganism.

This event is written of by Constantine of Preslav in his Didactic Gospel.

Vladimir starts the process of destroying the Christian temples and persecuting the clergymen, because he regards them as instruments of Constantinople and its efforts to influence the Bulgarian kingdom.

However, Vladimir Rasate's actions are not well received by the population and the aristocracy, and he is supported by only a few of the boyars.

Simeon was born in 864 or 865, as the third son of Knyaz Boris I of Krum's dynasty.

As Boris was the ruler who had Christianized Bulgaria in 865, Simeon has been a Christian all his life.

Because his eldest brother Vladimir had always designated heir to the Bulgarian throne, Boris had intended Simeon to become a high-ranking cleric, possibly Bulgarian archbishop, and had sent him to the University of Constantinople to receive theological education when he was thirteen or fourteen.

He had taken the name Simeon as a novice in a monastery there.

During the decade (from about 878 to 888) he spent in the imperial capital, he had received an excellent education and studied the rhetoric of Demosthenes and Aristotle.

He had also learned fluent Greek, to the extent that he is referred to as "the half-Greek" in Byzantine chronicles.

He is speculated to have been tutored by Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople, but this is not supported by any source.

Around 888, Simeon had returned to Bulgaria and settled at the newly established royal monastery of Preslav, where, under the guidance of Naum of Preslav, he has engaged in active translation of important religious works from Greek to Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian), aided by other students from Constantinople.

Meanwhile, Vladimir had succeeded Boris, who had retreated to a monastery, as ruler of Bulgaria.

Vladimir has attempted to reintroduce paganism in the empire and possibly signed an anti-Constantinople pact with Arnulf of Carinthia, forcing Boris to reenter political life.

With the aid of loyal boyars and the army, Boris drives his dissolute son from the throne and has him blinded, unfitting him for rule.

He then convenes a council that confirms Christianity as the religion of the state and moves the administrative capital from Pliska to the Slavic town of Preslav to better cement the recent conversion.

The assembly also proclaims Bulgarian as the only language of state and church.

It is not known why Boris did not place his second son, Gavril, on the throne, but instead preferred Simeon.

Boris now retires permanently to monastic life, making generous grants to the Bulgarian Church and patronizing Slav scholarship.

An internal dispute breaks out in 893 among the Kharijites, and many of whom decide to reject Harun's leadership.

The leader of the dissidents is one Muhammad ibn 'Ubaydah, a member of the Banu Zuhayr from the village of Qabratha, who gathers a number of supporters from the tribal Arabs and begins collecting taxes for himself.

He also builds a fortress at Sinjar and puts his son in charge of it, leaving a large amount of his plunder there.

In response, Harun marches toward the fortress with over a thousand men and lays siege to it.

The Banu Zuhayr within the fortress eventually agree to submit after they are granted a guarantee of safe-conduct; the gates are opened to Harun's men, and Muhammad's son and several of his followers are beheaded.

Harun now advances against Qabratha, where Muhammad himself is stationed.

In the ensuing battle Harun's forces ware at first forced to fall back, but they subsequently rally and defeat he dissidents, killing a large number of them.

Muhammad flees to Amida but is captured by its governor Ahmad ibn 'Isa al-Shaybani and sent to Baghdad, where he is flayed on the caliph's orders.

Al-Mu'tadid's first campaign in al-Jazira, in 893, is directed against the Banu Shayban in the region of the Zab Rivers.

Yahya bin al-Husayn bin al-Qasim ar-Rassi was born in Medina, being a Sayyid who traced his ancestry from Hasan, son of Ali (and also grandson of Muhammad).

His grandfather al-Qasim ar-Rassi (d. 860), who unsuccessfully tried to reach political leadership, owned a property close to Mecca, ar-Rass.

This is the origin of the name of the dynasty founded by Yahya, the Rassids.

Al-Qasim ar-Rassi was a major organizer of the theology and jurisprudence of the Zaydiyya division of the Shi’ites, which also had a following in Persia.

The Zaydiyya hail from Zaid (d. 740), second son of the fourth Shi'a imam Zayn al-Abidin.

Yahya has developed a theology based on his grandfather's teachings but has given it a more pronounced Shia profile.

His positions are close to the contemporary Mu'tazila school in Iraq which emphasizes reason and rational thinking.

In 893, Yahya enters Yemen from the Hijaz, trying to build up a Zaydiyya power base in the area.

His ambition is to rid the land from bad religious practices and bring the benefits of his own version of Islam.

At this time, the Tihamah lowland is ruled by the Ziyadid Dynasty (819-1018), originally governors of the Abbasid caliphs.

San'a, in the interior of Yemen, has been dominated by the indigenous Yu’firid Dynasty since 847.

Yahya reaches ash-Sharafah, some distance from San'a, but is then forced to turn back since he does not find the enthusiastic welcome he had hoped for.

Clement, according to his hagiography by Theophylact of Ohrid, was born in the southwestern part of the Bulgarian Empire, in the region then known as Kutmichevitsa.

Clement had participated in the mission of Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia and, after the death of Cyril, had accompanied Methodius on his journey from Rome to Pannonia and Great Moravia.

After the death of Methodius himself in 885, Clement had headed the struggle against the German clergy in Great Moravia along with Gorazd.

After spending some time in jail, he had been expelled from Great Moravia and in 885 or 886 had reached the borders of Bulgaria together with Naum of Preslav, Angelarius and possibly Gorazd (according to other sources, Gorazd was already dead by that time).

Thereafter, the four of them were sent to the Bulgarian capital of Pliska where they had been commissioned by Boris I of Bulgaria to instruct the future clergy of the state in the Slavonic language.

After the adoption of Christianity in 865, religious ceremonies in Bulgaria had been conducted in Greek by clergy sent from Constantinople.

Fearing the growing influence of the Empire and weakening of the Bulgarian state, Boris views the adoption of the Old Slavonic language as a way to preserve the political independence and stability of Bulgaria.

With a view thereto, Boris had made arrangements for the establishment of two literary academies where theology was to be taught in the Slavonic language.

The first of the schools had been founded in the capital, Pliska, and the second in the region of Kutmichevitsa.

While Naum of Preslav had stayed in Pliska working on the foundation of the Pliska Literary School, Clement had been commissioned by Boris I to organize the teaching of theology to future clergymen in Old Church Slavonic in Kutmichevitza.

For a period of seven years (between 886 and 893) has Clement taught some thirty-five hundred disciples in the Slavonic language and the Glagolitic alphabet.

He is in 893, ordained archbishop of Drembica (Velika), also in Kutmichevica, a region that corresponds roughly with the territory of modern southern Albania, with some parts in present southwestern Macedonia.

Alfonso III and the Repopulation of Zamora

As part of his repopulation efforts, King Alfonso III of Asturias resettles the city of Zamora with Mozarabs from Toledo. These Christian refugees, who had lived under Muslim rule in Al-Andalus, bring with them distinct cultural influences, helping to revitalize and fortify the city as a strategic outpost along the Christian-Muslim frontier.

This repopulation strengthens Asturian control over the Duero Valley, further consolidating Christian presence in the region during the early phases of the Reconquista.