Five conquests
Jerusalem won, Jerusalem lost, Constantinople taken, the steppe in arms, and the Sultan who built it all.
5 questions. Pick an answer to see the explanation. Share your result at the end.
Who called the First Crusade, and when?
Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont on 27 November 1095, offering a plenary indulgence to knights who would travel east to recover the Holy Land. The expedition reached Jerusalem and captured it on 15 July 1099. Richard the Lionheart led the Third Crusade (1189–1192); Alexios I Komnenos's request for aid against the Seljuks was the immediate trigger but he did not call the Crusade himself; Francis of Assisi joined the Fifth Crusade as a peace envoy.
When did the Crusader presence in the Holy Land end?
Acre, the last major Crusader stronghold on the Levantine coast, fell to the Mamluk Sultanate on 18 May 1291 after a six-week siege. The remaining Crusader-held coastal forts surrendered or were evacuated over the following months. The two-century Crusader presence in the Holy Land was over. Jerusalem had been lost to Saladin a century earlier in 1187.
In what year did Constantinople fall to the Ottomans, ending the Byzantine Empire?
Constantinople fell on 29 May 1453 to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II after a 53-day siege. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died fighting at the walls. 1204 is the Fourth Crusade sack of Constantinople (the city was recovered in 1261); 1517 is Luther's 95 Theses; 1648 is the Peace of Westphalia.
Roughly how large was the Mongol Empire at its 1279 peak — and what was its distinction in world history?
At its 1279 peak under Kublai Khan, the Mongol Empire encompassed approximately 24 million square kilometres — from the Pacific to the Black Sea — and ruled approximately 110 million people. It remains the largest contiguous land empire in recorded history. The British Empire was larger in total area (~35 million km²) but was a maritime empire of scattered overseas territories.
Who was the Ottoman sultan under whom the empire reached its greatest extent and cultural peak?
Suleiman I — called *Kanuni* ('the Lawgiver') in Turkish and *Magnificent* in European usage — reigned for 46 years, the longest of any Ottoman sultan. The empire under him reached its greatest extent (Hungary, North Africa, Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf), produced its mature legal and administrative system, and built most of the great Ottoman mosques (Sinan's architectural career was Suleimanic). Mehmed II took Constantinople in 1453; Selim I conquered Egypt in 1517; Murad IV reigned much later.