The rise and fall of the medieval Islamic Empire - Petra Sijpesteijn & Birte Kristiansen

But this wasn’t the end of mighty empires ruling the region! In the late 13th century came the Ottoman Empire — one of the longest-lasting dynasties in world history. What enabled its rise to power? Check our our video on the early days of the Ottomans to find out: bit.ly/TEDEdOttoman

I do appreciate the effort made and the respect shown to Islam as a religion and belief by covering/not showing the faces of the Prophet (PBUH) and his successor. Thank you.

"In one week, libraries and their treasures that had been accumulated over hundreds of years were burned or otherwise destroyed. So many books were thrown into the Tigris River, according to one writer, that they formed a bridge that would support a man on horseback" (Harris, History of Libraries in the Western World 4th ed [1999] 85).

As an Arab it's great to see a video about our history. Not overgloriefied by our school books. And not vilified by media. Edit:Mf's ok :"as a Muslim..." happy now?

This is very thoughtful. Not only did they get a narrator that can pronounce these names accurately but they were considerate about not drawing faces of the prophet and specific companions. Well done!

Though most maps are drawn in ink, their borders and names are constantly shifting. For the purposes of this animation, we chose to refer to the important cities of the Islamic Empire by their most commonly used English and Farsi names. But keep in mind that many of the places mentioned in this lesson have a variety of names in multiple languages. Share what name YOU refer to these cities by below!

Thank you for the first part depicted with respect, fact and non-bias . If I asked my dad, he'd get carried away with the shiah perspective of what happened. If I asked others, I get the sunni view, and everyone gets carried away with the politics. I just wanted to know what happened. Thanks!!!

Don't you love it when they actually pronounce it as Islam and not "izlam" and Muslim not "muzlim" ? Kudos to ted ed for telling the unbiased history.

This is the first time I’ve seen a video like this pronouncing the names in correct Arabic pronunciation

An interesting aspect that the video didn't touch on was the role political infighting had on the Crusades. The region was already in uproar when the first Crusaders arrived, and had there not been so much division, it's unlikely that the poorly-organized European armies would have enjoyed as much success as they did.

To think that Damascus was once the capital of a powerful empire! It's really sad to see the situation the city and Syria as a whole were brought to nowadays.

In my honors department here at the University of Toronto we learned of the amazing love and respect Adam Smith (Father of Capitalism) had for Islam. In fact, reading his essays he very much respected the Caliphs as 'Magnificent Princes' whom restored the sciences etc of Europe. He gives heavy credit to current success of Europe and the West (Economically) to Islam and Islamic civilization.

as a Muslim I feel so sad knowing how this happened. "Destruction starts from Corruption". We should learn from history so we can create a brighter future

I hope we can get more videos about earlier civilizations (especially within Asia) because it's more fun to learn history with the animation and narrations.

Very strange not knowing any of this history yet recognizing certain names and places from the Crusader Kings games.

중세 이슬람 제국에 대한 내용 잘 봤습니다. 중세 역사는 매우 흥미로운 점이 많은 것 같습니다. 최근에 이런 역사 동영상을 보며 역사 공부를 하고 있는데, 참 유익하고 좋은 것 같습니다. 좋은 영상 감사합니다!

After Fire of Alexandria library and the destruction of Nalanda university, the siege of Baghdad is another painful moment in history, Think how much information we lost with it...

To everyone who's asking "What about the Ottomans?": There are large areas of the Islamic world, like Persia, which the Ottomans never controlled and which ended up in the hands of rival powers like the Ilkhanate. The Ottomans also came to power quite late in the Middle Ages, lasted into the Modern era, and controlled large areas where Islam never became the majority religion, so calling it a "medieval Islamic empire" makes only a little more sense than calling the Holy Roman Empire the successor of the Roman Empire.

Was hooked up on the "Arabian nights" trend on tiktok and has started to research aladdin and all the 1001 nights stories and arabian culture all in all and ted ed uploaded it just about now!.. this is so timely and in sync for me 😮🤯

I appreciate the fact that they didn’t draw any of the prophet’s faces. I mean there are descriptions of each prophets, so they could do that, and even though some people think that it is mandatory, which it is, I just personally love the little attention to details. Cool video I really liked it, very helpful too.