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The medieval world

The medieval world: a chapter of the Turning Points of History Book, with the moments, people and dates that shaped the world.

11 cards · History

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Each Zap teaches up to 5 new cards, so you learn the chapter a few at a time.

Checked by the Brain Zap team · reviewed 27 Oct 2026

Sources: World history (Encyclopaedia Britannica), World History Encyclopedia

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  • Year of the Hijra, start of the Islamic calendar

    Show answer: Year of the Hijra, start of the Islamic calendar

    622

    Learn more: Year one of the Islamic calendar counts from this journey, not from Muhammad's birth.

  • Baghdad's great library and centre of learning

    Show answer: Baghdad's great library and centre of learning

    The House of Wisdom

    Learn more: Under the Abbasid caliphs it gathered scholars who kept and improved Greek, Persian and Indian science.

  • Viking who reached North America around 1000

    Show answer: Viking who reached North America around 1000

    Leif Erikson

    Learn more: Norse sailors built a camp at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland about 500 years before Columbus.

  • Year the First Crusade captured Jerusalem

    Show answer: Year the First Crusade captured Jerusalem

    1099

    Learn more: Crusaders took the city after a long siege; Saladin won it back in 1187.

  • Mali ruler said to be the richest person ever

    Show answer: Mali ruler said to be the richest person ever

    Mansa Musa

    Learn more: He gave away so much gold in Cairo on his way to Mecca in 1324 that its value there fell for years.

About this topic

The thousand years after Rome fell were far from dark. The Byzantine Empire kept Roman law alive in Constantinople, and Baghdad's House of Wisdom kept Greek science alive and added much of its own. Vikings reached America, crusaders fought over Jerusalem, and the Mongols built a new dynasty in China. In Africa, Mali's Mansa Musa grew famous for his gold, and Timbuktu and Great Zimbabwe became great centres of trade and learning.

This is a chapter of the Turning Points of History Book. Each card asks one question, with a hint before you answer and a short reason after. Once you know most of this chapter, the next one starts arriving in your Daily Zap.

All 11 cards

  1. Year of the Hijra, start of the Islamic calendar

    622

    Learn more: Year one of the Islamic calendar counts from this journey, not from Muhammad's birth.

  2. Baghdad's great library and centre of learning

    The House of Wisdom

    Learn more: Under the Abbasid caliphs it gathered scholars who kept and improved Greek, Persian and Indian science.

  3. Viking who reached North America around 1000

    Leif Erikson

    Learn more: Norse sailors built a camp at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland about 500 years before Columbus.

  4. Year the First Crusade captured Jerusalem

    1099

    Learn more: Crusaders took the city after a long siege; Saladin won it back in 1187.

  5. Mali ruler said to be the richest person ever

    Mansa Musa

    Learn more: He gave away so much gold in Cairo on his way to Mecca in 1324 that its value there fell for years.

  6. Teenage girl who led France against England

    Joan of Arc

    Learn more: She led French troops in the Hundred Years' War, was captured and burned in 1431, and made a saint in 1920.

  7. Rome's eastern half, which outlived the west by 1,000 years

    The Byzantine Empire

    Learn more: It kept Roman law and Greek learning alive until the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453.

  8. System of land given in return for loyalty and service

    Feudalism

    Learn more: A king granted land to lords, who owed him soldiers; peasants worked the land in return for protection.

  9. Desert city famed for its manuscripts and mosques

    Timbuktu

    Learn more: In the 1400s and 1500s its scholars made it a centre of Islamic learning, with tens of thousands of manuscripts.

  10. Stone city that gave an African country its name

    Great Zimbabwe

    Learn more: Built between the 1000s and 1400s by ancestors of the Shona, it was the heart of a gold-trading kingdom.

  11. Mongol ruler who founded China's Yuan dynasty

    Kublai Khan

    Learn more: He made Beijing his capital and welcomed foreign visitors, Marco Polo among them by Polo's own account.

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